IBEW/NECA, In Coordination With President Pro Tempore Emeritus Kevin de Leon, Holds First In Series Of Summits To Address California's Role In Mitigating Climate Change

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Energy leaders in the business, policy, regulatory, and academic sectors gathered at IBEW/NECA's state of the art Net Zero Plus Electrical Training Institute, the largest electrical training institute in the nation, for the Kevin de Leon 2020 Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Summit, the first in a series of gatherings to explore and share strategies for California's role in transitioning to a carbon-free future.

Hosted by Kevin de Leon, California President Pro Tempore Emeritus and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 11 and the L.A. Chapter, National Electrical Contractors Assn. (NECA), the former State Senate leader presided at the meeting attended by representatives of dozens of California's most influential thought leaders.

As the fifth largest economy in the world, California has assumed a leadership role in global decarbonization. The summit's objective was to bring together political and regulatory leaders, industry, utilities, academia, grid operators, technology experts, project developers, labor, environmental organizations and other important entities to communicate outside of their traditional silos and start to work together to advance and accelerate a totally carbon-free future.

California's Senate Bill 100 (SB100), the California 100% Clean Energy Act, sets the bold but achievable goal of powering California with 100% clean, carbon-free electricity by 2045.  With this and the decarbonization of other sectors setting the tone for the summit, a myriad of ideas, strategies and challenges were generated that reached beyond SB 100 mandates. Just some of the issues discussed supporting the decarbonization of buildings, transportation and the power sectors were:  investment strategies, unleashing innovation, governmental support policies, removal of barriers, the unlocking of price signals, large-scale implementation of electric vehicles, developing and utilizing a trained workforce and more.

"It is only logical that California lead the way in total decarbonization strategies," de Leon said.  "The state has the ability, talent, know-how, resources and workforce to achieve the goals set forth in SB100 and beyond."

"IBEW/NECA was thrilled to host this first summit where so many leaders from across the State and in every energy sector came together to participate," James Willson, Chapter Manager of LA/NECA said.  Added Joel Barton, Business Manager of IBEW Local 11, "IBEW/NECA have worked tirelessly on clean energy strategies for more than a decade. Our Training Facility is living proof that we have the expertise, training and workforce to build the infrastructure for the carbon-free future."

Additional information on the summit and decarbonization strategies can be obtained by contacting: Joe Sullivan at (626) 755-9892

SOURCE Southern California IBEW/NECA Labor-Management Cooperation Committee

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