Long Beach Mayor Discusses Incentives for Renewable Energy

With jurisdiction over one of the nation's largest ports and with experience at the California Energy Commission and as chief of staff for the California State Senate's Energy Committee, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster is well versed on the issues of renewable energy and green infrastructure. The article features remarks made by the mayor at the recent GreenXchange Global marketplace Conference.

"When I was at Edison, we had the great fortune of having a guy named Bill Gould as chairman in the early ‘80s, who, before anybody else in the electric industry, wanted to move towards renewables. He happened to be a Long Beach citizen, actually. Bill Gould set a policy for the SCE company to have ten percent of its portfolio in renewable energy. There was no requirement. It was ground-breaking. He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do."

"We all know that every local government is looking for dollars to do things that they find necessary. This is just about policy. We're taking it upon ourselves, the two ports and the two cities, to clean up those ports, to electrify them, and to make sure that the handling equipment is clean. It's either going to be electric or some other clean, alternative fuel. We're going to change the trucking industry to have alternative fuel trucks and clean diesel trucks."