DWP quietly scales back Villaraigosa's ambitious renewable energy goal

[XemaSab]

As Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa prepares to pick the next general manager of the Department of Water and Power — his sixth in three and a half years — the massive utility is quietly backing away from his ambitious goal of generating 40% of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

That shift, initiated under the leadership of First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, is only the latest at an agency marked by upheaval as it pursues the mayor's lofty environmental agenda.

Since Villaraigosa took office in 2005, the nation's largest municipally owned utility has been in a state of churn. Multimillion-dollar initiatives have been announced, then abandoned. Executives have been installed, then jettisoned.

Leadership turnover — five general managers over the last three and a half years and four DWP board presidents since 2006 — has caused the utility to lurch from one environmental strategy to the next, investing time and ratepayer dollars on projects, only to see them scrapped.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-dysfunction-20101206,0,1907521.story

[txlibdem]

1. Put adequate dollars into it and they will meet those goals

It looks like this Mayor is just trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip and failing to budget for success. The goal is not "lofty" as stated in the article. Al Gore laid out a plan where the entire nation could get 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The only thing holding that back is the budget.

Hiring and firing managers will not accomplish an impossible task. Good leaders understand that you give your employees the tools (and the budget) to accomplish your goals. Obviously this guy is a victim of the Peter Principle.