One of the last times President Bill Clinton visited Los Angeles City Hall was in 2009 to unveil a proposal to replace most of the city’s aging incandescent streetlights with environmentally friendly bulbs.
Clinton returned on Thursday, again with a focus on environmental issues. The nation’s 42nd president joined Mayor Eric Garcetti to host a half-day conference on alternative energy and infrastructure improvements.
Seated before 200 business and government leaders, Clinton and Garcetti talked about the importance of moving toward nontraditional energy sources.
“Even the people who are semi climate-deniers acknowledge that we have to mitigate the impacts of extreme changes in the weather,” Clinton said. “And we have to prepare for more of an independent future, both politically as well as economically.”
The “21st Century Infrastructure and Innovation for a Resilient Economy Forum” was hosted in part by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), part of the Clinton Foundation, whose mission is to spark ideas and find solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, according to the organization’s website.
Alternative energy, climate change and pension investments were among the top topics discussed Thursday, with Clinton noting he was frustrated by the lack of available financing for alternative-energy projects such as solar, while coal plants can more easily obtain funding.
“The financing mechanisms of America … and the distribution of political power are organized for protecting yesterday instead of creating tomorrow,” Clinton said.
The gathering marked one of the first times Clinton and Garcetti have appeared together since last year’s tight Los Angeles mayor’s race. Clinton endorsed Garcetti’s rival Wendy Greuel and hosted a high-profile lunch for the former city controller at Langer’s Deli near downtown during the campaign.
The former president referenced the race Thursday but had a slip of the tongue and said Garcetti had been elected president, not mayor. Catching himself, Clinton told Garcetti, “You may become president one day.”
Pitching his own green innovations, Garcetti talked up the Department of Water and Power, outlining how customers at the utility can sell back their solar power to the DWP. The Los Angeles Fire Department is also looking at using solar, in the event disaster strikes and traditional power sources are unusable.
Los Angeles has to be more resilient, Garcetti said, adding, “We’ve had two earthquakes in the last month.”
Garcetti also praised the success of the 2009 Los Angeles streetlight program, a CGI initiative that converted more than 140,000 lamps and helped cut the city’s power bill by 63 percent, the mayor pointed out.
“We got traditional financing on it, and banks are now lining up to do the next round,” he said. “We’re looking at putting solar panels on each one of those. We’re looking at having Wi-Fi hotspots come up on each of them.”
Thursday’s conference marked the fifth meeting convened by President Clinton to discuss infrastructure with mayors.
After appearing with Garcetti, Clinton moderated a panel on pension fund investments with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.
