DWP makes case for rate hikes

The Department of Water and Power will need to hike utility rates to replace the city's aging infrastructure and invest in green energy, but the actual rates won't be determined until after a series of community meetings, officials said Saturday. C.J.Lin in the Daily News.

More than 70 percent of the city's electric generation will need to be replaced, and the use of coal, which accounts for 40 percent of the city's energy supply, is slated to be entirely eliminated by 2030 in moves that city officials called a "massive transformation" of the DWP.

"That is a sea change to have that happen so quickly," said DWP Manager Ron Nichols at a first-of-its-kind joint meeting between the City Council's Energy and Environment Committee and the civilian DWP commission. "We can't do that with our current finance levels."