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DWP’s Freeman reaffirms goal of open Inyo-L.A. talks in solar power meeting; Inyo County supes steer solar talk toward land issues

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 15, 2010 at 7:01 am

bishop meetingFrom Bishop’s Inyo Register:

“Interim General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power S. David Freeman used his well-known charm on a crowd of more than 300 Monday as he and other DWP managers held a public discussion about a proposed solar park on the bed of the Owens Lake.

Freeman received some rounds of applause and several chuckles from the audience – a rare occurrence for the head of the utility that, as Freeman himself said, “stole the land” from the people of Inyo.

“I’m an honest guy,” Freeman said, adding that the meeting may sound a little strange as DWP has no details about the solar project, but that’s the point. He said that in the past DWP would not relay the details of a project until it was complete, but this time Freeman wanted to be upfront from the ground level.

He said this is an “historic period” as the utility goes from “dirty to clean,” moving away from coal toward renewable energy sources. … “

Read more about the solar plans Freeman discussed at the meeting in this article from the Inyo Register by clicking here.

In a related story, the Inyo Register reports that the Inyo County Supervisors attending the meeting steered Freeman towards the local economy, land use, and DWP’s unfulfilled promises:

” … Second District Supervisor Susan Cash said that a major solar project on the Dry Lake would create a housing and infrastructure demand on Southern Inyo, and wanted to know how the department would handle that.

Freeman said that the LADWP would sub-let pieces of the lake bed to public entities, which would, in turn, pay taxes to support services.
More to the point, Cash said that there are several properties that the LADWP holds in downtown corridors throughout the valley that could be released to the public. That includes 70 acres that were slated to be released last year, but the LADWP claims it did not receive any reasonable bids during the auction.

“Lone Pine, Independence and Big Pine have vacant DWP land on Main Street” that could be put into public hands, Fourth District Supervisor Marty Fortney added.

“I’m on your side on this particular issue,” Freeman said. “Let’s take every one of these pieces of land that are in a particular area and do something serious with them.” … “

Read more of this story from the Inyo Register by clicking here.

January 15, 2010 · Filed Under Owens Valley & Mono Lake

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