Go green to get green: LA DWP rebates
Easy Green already wrote about this for Pasadena, but for the “real” Angelenos who haven’t run off to the suburbs, get green electricity via LA DWP (Dept. of Water and Power).
Sign up for LA DWP’s Green Power program, and all your electricity will come from green sources, like solar and wind power. It’ll cost you about $3 extra a month — but for signing up, you’ll get two complimentary compact fluorescent bulbs, which’ll save you money in the short AND long term and hopefully even things out a bit.
To be honest, signing up’s a bit confusing. The 3-step web sign-up form’s simple enough, but when I thought I was all done, I got this message:
Thank you for completing the Green Power Program Form online. As requested, the program or sign-up information will soon be sent to you.
Huh? Am I signed up or not?
The LA DWP could really learn some lessons in e-user-friendliness. Shrugging off the Green Power conundrum, I tried to pay my water and power bill online — to find out I’d have to sign up first — meaning fill out a PDF form with my checking account info, then snailmail it in. Then, after 2 weeks, I’ll be able to finally log on to pay my bill. Yes, there is an option to pay instantly by credit card, but that tacks on an extra $5.95 to my bill — money I’m planning to put toward the Green Power thing.
Still, LA DWP really does run some cool programs. In addition to the Green Power option and the widely publicized free tree program, Angelenos can get rebates for buying a myriad of old and new house products. Check out this list:
- Your old fridge: The REfrigerator Turn-In and REcycle Program (RETIRE) program will pick up and recycle your old fridge or freezer, and give you a free 6-pack of compact fluorescent bulbs to boot.
- Your new toilet: The Ultra-Low-Flush Toilet Rebate Program will give you between $75 and $100 for replacing an old toilet. Fill out this form to get a rebate application.
- Your new washing machine:The High-Efficiency Clothes Washer Rebate Program gives you up to $150 back if you purchase and install high-efficiency washing machines. Fill out this form for a rebate application.
Want more? The Consumer Rebate Program gives you money back for everything from your air conditioner to your ceiling fan to your windows. Check out the PDF application.
Sadly, I rent, so I can’t really take advantage of the rebate programs. I thought of bugging my landlord, but my lease is month to month — What if I get my roommates and I kicked out?
In the meantime, I’m waiting to hear back about my Green Power status. Once I’m definitely signed up, I’ll feel a little less bad about my roommate constantly leaving the TV on with no one watching …
**Update, 10/26/05: Ed from the LA DWP emailed me back! I’d asked, per avs’s question (see comments) where the money for these green programs comes from. Here’s his response:
Thank you for your kind words about LADWP’s Green LA programs. In response to your question, LADWP is required to collect 2.85% of its gross revenues for Public Good programs. LADWP energy efficiency programs, tree planting programs, low income customer subsidies, and the like are all funded from this source.
Again, thank you for the kind words of acknowledgment.
Filed in: ladwp losangeles california green environment rebates refrigerator toilet washingmachine
Amusingly, Pasadena does the exact same oddball thing for signing up for green power! It makes no sense to me either.
In any case, Treehugger also recently posted about a Canadian version of green power called Bullfrog Power . A Google of “green power” (in quotes) will get hits from Montana to Florida and back again.
As an aside, Pasadena is not a suburb of LA. Since it’s founding in the 1880s Pasadena has been a metropolitan center in its own right. This is one of the reasons we are a desirable place for fans of a sustainable lifestyle, and the home of the founder of New Urbanism. Pretty much everything you could want is within a 15 minute bike-ride, from entertainment to jobs, Universities to orphanages, corporate headquarters to artistic enclaves and, and, well a whole bunch of stuff of other cool stuff.
I could go on and on (grin) but will spare you the infinite virtues of Pasadena. For now. Mostly, though puh-leeze don’t call us a suburb (eye roll)(grin).
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — October 23, 2005 @ 5:38 pm
At least you can get green power. Last I looked, I couldn’t find any alternatives in San Diego. I was able to find wind power for my parents in Connecticut, which they signed up for, but couldn’t find anything for San Diego. I might have to look into it again…
Also, I hear ya about the bummer of renting. I’m pretty sure our refrigerator accounts for about half of my monthly electric bill, which luckily is only about $25-$30 a month. I actually informed my property manager that the fridge was running way too often, and wasn’t even keeping stuff that cold, and he told me that they wouldn’t do anything about it until it flat out died. bah.
Comment by Russ — October 23, 2005 @ 6:58 pm
Could you shed some light on the business side of this rebate system? Up here we need to pay to get our old electronics and fridges properly disposed of, unless the shop that sells you some new white goods is kind enough to take care of the old junk. Of late, EU has introduced a recycling fee that is tagged to each new electronic or electrical item you buy, so hopefully in the long run the externalities will be included in the end customer price tag.
But who pays for example for the RETIRE program there in LA? Are rebates only redeemable towards new items of the same sort? Are these programs sustainable - are the waste disposal externalities visible to the customer somehow so they have an effect of steering the market towards less waste generation?
Comment by avs — October 24, 2005 @ 12:08 am
i LOVE your blog!
aussie
Comment by Anonymous — October 24, 2005 @ 9:58 am
Roger — So what ended up happening with the Pasadena sign up? Did you get another form in the mail? How long did the process take?
Yeah — Whatev about the Pasadena not being a suburb ;) Tell that to the mass of commuters on the 110 south every morning. More seriously, I did really enjoy walking around Old Pasadena before my museum visit. Of course, my friend insisted we drive the 3 blocks or so from the Old Pas parking lot to Norton Simon… You have your work cut out for you up there ;)
Russ — I’m not sure about the green energy thing, but here’s new ammo to bug your property manager with: SDG&E will cart away the offending fridge for recycling and give you $35 bucks for it. OK — I guess that news prolly excites me a lil more than your property manager, but just an FYI ;)
avs — I’m guessing that the rebate system is paid for by LA DWP customers, which would mean that basically, some of the money Angelenos pay for utilities are being given back to the green Angelenos for their efforts. But I couldn’t find any more detailed info in the annual report. I’ve sent the program people an email asking for more deets.
The RETIRE program is basically a recycling program — You don’t have to buy a new fridge to get rid of the thing and receive free lightbulbs. As for the rebate programs, the cash back offer is for the purchase of a new product — There’s no mention of the product having to be a replacement of an older one. In general the product has to have the EnergyStar stamp, which is like a certification that shows the product’s energy efficient.
I’m not as sure about the “waste disposable externalities visible” question — I’m guessing you’re asking if there’s consumer education going on to show, say, that there are lots of inefficient machines out there, and that if they’re gonna buy something new, they should get an EnergyStar product? Lemme know, and I’ll try to find out :)
And anon — Thanks :)
Comment by Siel — October 24, 2005 @ 1:19 pm
Re: The Green Power: There was some more paper work, and then we were signed up. Pasadena phrases the contract that you are “donating” the extra .025 that green power costs. Very convoluted by it worked.
More Suburb Rant
Understanding what is, and is not, a suburb, by the by, can go a long way toward helping one make sustainable choices when picking a place to live and to work or go to school. So it is important to get it right, if nothing else so as not to confuse the sustainability neophytes.
A suburb is not merely a place where some of its residents work in a nearby or larger city. The modern suburb is a bedroom community, without appreciable commerce, dependent on a nearby urban core for jobs of all kinds (from high dollar white collar to entry level and low wage work).
That’s not Pasadena. We have jobs, goods and services. We have poor and rich and all in between.
But most importantly, Pasadena has more people who live and work right here than virtually any other city in SoCal. Some 60% of vehicle trips that begin in Pasadena end in Pasadena or a county area that is called Pasadena. In the suburbs, that number is down below 20%. Also, most of the folks on the 110 are headed into and out of South Pasadena or other places along the Arroyo — which are suburbs, as defined above.
The reason this is important at all is that a classic (modern)suburb is an unsupportable, non-sustainable artifact of the 1950-1970 era. In other words, sprawl. See http://www.endofsuburbia.com for a good working example of a suburb and why being a suburb is a bad thing.
But I know what you mean when it comes to people being picky about casually misusing labels and unwittingly flinging stereotypes — all those rich kids with low SATs and GREs at USC sure get worked up over that “Fur Trade” coffee. Whatev’ah.
(Big, but serious, grin),
R,
USC, Jour/Posc ‘82
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — October 24, 2005 @ 8:59 pm
Alright, alright :) It’s both encouraging and discouraging to hear about the 60% of vehicle trips. Glad to see they’re not all drivin’ over to the Strip, but if they’re just staying within Pasadena, why not bike, walk or take the bus?
Of course, this is the question you’re encouraging Pasadenians to ask ;) Have you found this work encouraging? Do you feel there’s “progress” being made?
And you never told me you were a Trojan before!!! Dude! We have so much in common! ;)
Comment by Siel — October 24, 2005 @ 9:20 pm
Siel:
The question about externalities - maybe I should expand on that a bit. What I mean with an externality (usually used in its negative sense) is some fall-out that is borne by someone else than the product sourcing chain or the original customer. As an example, environmental damage from a production plant that is caused because of lax environmental laws or lack of enforcement of those - the company gets an unfair advantage when they do not need to invest money in anti-pollution measures. The consequences (negative externalities, in this case, pollution), are paid by someone else than the end customer of that product.
Proper disposal of electric waste is a huge problem. Many people just dump their lead-laden and chlorofluorocarbon-containing stuff in mixed household waste (or worse), because proper disposal would incur costs or effort. These costs (externalities) should be somehow made visible to the customer when the initial buying decision is done, because that would steer the buying patterns to the right direction, or at least “make the polluter pay”. Now, if LADWP just pays for the disposal, the original customer of the appliance won’t see the costs, and the costs become negative externalities borne by other LADWP customers. Hopefully that was at least somewhat coherent explanation of what I had in mind :-)
Ok, probably LADWP is more concerned about energy efficiency than the externalities of the production and disposal of household equipment. So their scheme is basically income transfer to green customers that want new stuff. Plus the energy-saving bulbs :-) (Which probably are problem waste too, at least they used to contain mercury. I guess they still do.)
But here’s a question. Producing household appliances consumes vast amounts of energy. Transporting new washing machines from Taiwan is done with fossil fuels too. I wonder how long one has to use an Energy Star labelled product until one has offset the environmental cost of producing a new appliance and disposal of the old one. Especially if one buys electricity with zero effective emissions, such as wind/solar (you lucky ones have realistic solar energy… here, now it’s still dark when I leave for work and already dark when I get back from work).
Yes, and like Anonymous said above, I love your blog too!
Comment by avs — October 25, 2005 @ 12:16 am
We are workin’ on the walkin’ thing. In a not-too-old statewide study co-released by Pasadena Walks! and the STTP (Surface Transportation Policy Project) Pasadena was ranked third in walkability — behind only San Francisco and Berkeley!
The survey took into account not only the amount of pedestrian travel, but the number of pedestrian injuries per ped.
In 2004 the City was recognized as “Bike Friendly” by the LACBC (Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition) and in 2005 for its “Walkability” by California Walks, which held its statewide meeting here.
We have in the City general plan that “Pasadena Shall Be a Place Where People Can Circulate Without Cars.” This is one of the seven fundamental principles guiding the city.
Still, getting staffers to remember that is sometimes work. And getting folks to take advantage is a chore sometimes. But that is why Pasadena Walks! exists, and why I post things like “Give Your Car the Weekend Off” and “Red-Tag Your Car” — to raise awareness and give people a starting place.
R.
P.S. Fight On!
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — October 25, 2005 @ 11:50 am
A note on the HE washer program (because I did the paperwork on it recently): the LADWP rebate only applies if you use electricity to heat your hot water. Gas users (such as myself) need not apply. This makes sense from the DWP end of the deal, I guess.
Even so, we love our HE washer/dryer (a Maytag, I think; we got it at Sears.)
Comment by Delicious — October 26, 2005 @ 1:41 pm
First, a response from the LA DWP — see update above.
AVS — thinking about the concerns you mentioned are making me think so hard I’m having a mild panic attack…
But more seriously — in terms of the rebates and stuff, the people buying new machines are likely to be people who were gonna be buying new stuff anyway — meaning that whatever energy and environmental issues that buying a new EnergyStar product brings up, those concerns would be even worse if consumers bought a non EnergyStar product.
Though now, energy saving labels are under attack (via Adventures in Ethical Consumerism. Sheesh.
I’m happy to say LA seems to be at least trying to make progress in terms of the wind and solar thing. We have plans to accelerate our green energy goals.
Roger — Your passion for walking inspires me :)
And Delicious — Thanks for the info! Good to know :) Do you mean you love the new washer/dryer cuz it saves electricity money? Or are there other cool features for these washers I don’t know about?
Comment by Siel — October 26, 2005 @ 4:40 pm
Siel: Thanks for the pointer to the FoE press release on the WTO activity. Gave me some blogging material. This is really important - Fairtrade label is one of the ones that are under threat. I wonder if TransFair is aware of this development?
Comment by avs — October 27, 2005 @ 1:01 pm
Hmmm — I’m not sure, but TransFair recently got in touch with me via the blog, so I’ll be sure to ask them. Will comment on your post tomorrow when I’m more sober and less sleepy — Thanks for writing about it — and in English, no less!! :)
Comment by Siel — October 28, 2005 @ 1:50 am