Public Works Union Attacks Eric Garcetti’s ‘Green New Deal’ in L.A.

Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, the largest union representing Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees, are taking sides against a local Democratic candidate for city council who supports Mayor Eric Garcetti’s version of the “Green New Deal,” highlighting her socialist affiliations.

The Los Angles Times reports that the union has sent voters in the San Fernando Valley council district ta mailer that “features activists raising their fists and carrying a Democratic Socialists of America banner, warn[ing] that [Lorraine] Lundquist has an ‘extremist political agenda.'”

The union is backing her opponent, Republican John Lee, who opposes Garcetti’s plan. The mayor’s proposal, as described by Breitbart News earlier this year, would shutter several natural gas plants crucial to the city’s power supply:

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared Monday that the city would abandon plans to rebuild three natural gas power plants, despite concerns that the city could face acute power shortages as a result.

Instead, the city will look for energy from renewable sources, including wind and solar, he decided.

…

“This is the Green New Deal … Not in concept, not in the future, but now,” Garcetti said, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

He made the decision despite the fact that “top staffers have argued in recent months that the gas plants are critical to keeping the lights on in the city,” the Times noted.

The union previously picketed Garcetti’s “State of the City” speech over his support for the “Green New Deal.”

The issue of natural gas as an energy source is complicated in the northwest San Fernando Valley by a natural gas leak in 2015 that forced the temporary evacuation of residents.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.