Committee approves amended change to municipal greenhouse‑gas inventory methodology; staff to present revised numbers by March 1

A Los Angeles City Council committee voted to adopt an amended update to the city’s annual municipal greenhouse‑gas (GHG) inventory methodology and to have staff finalize and present the revised inventory by March 1.

The committee approved the item (Agenda Item 2) after presentations from city and utility staff, including Diana Brown, identified as an environmental specialist with Los Angeles Sanitation, and representatives from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The amendment changed a reporting deadline from Jan. 15 to March 1 and instructs staff to use an operational‑control approach limited to in‑basin generation when calculating municipal GHGs.

The change responds to a discrepancy staff found between numbers used in the city’s municipal inventory and figures LADWP reported for its own operations. "La nueva metodología nada más incluye la generación de poder dentro de la cuenca," Diana Brown said, summarizing the narrower scope the committee endorsed.

Nut graf: The committee’s decision narrows the inventory’s treatment of power generation so that the municipal inventory counts emissions only from generation the city controls operationally within the basin, rather than a broader portfolio measure that had produced a larger figure. Staff said the narrower approach reduces the municipal baseline and will change how departments and the budget office model and prioritize climate investments.

City staff described the technical change and its budget implications during the meeting. According to presenters, the prior method included a larger measure of purchased power hours and out‑of‑basin generation; reconciling that approach with LADWP’s reporting required coordinated analysis with the city administrative office and LADWP. Staff reported the revised methodology lowers the municipal inventory baseline — staff described a roughly 4 percent reduction in the baseline attributable to the methodological change — and noted differences between prior percentages (for example, a slide cited figures described verbally as "forty‑one percent versus sixty‑two percent" when comparing parts of the portfolio to generation shares).

John Trend, identified in the transcript as part of the presenting team, said the inventory "serviría como información básica para poder entender las emisiones que ocurren en la ciudad de Los Ángeles" and that the updated inventory would feed modeling of future and current emissions to guide reduction actions.

Committee members pressed staff on next steps and practical implications. Members asked whether the revised inventory would influence department budget requests and whether information on fleet electrification and the feasibility of electric fire‑service vehicles could be included in future reports. Presenters said they would add feasibility information about existing vehicle technologies and provide department‑level data to the mayor’s budget team so that climate impacts of budget proposals can be assessed before the mayor’s budget release in April.

The meeting record also shows staff referenced a carbon‑pricing assumption of $8 per metric ton for internal analysis and discussed the pending update to the city’s broader climate action planning (referred to in the transcript as a Green New Deal update and a separate climate action plan update). Azíne Chan, from the office of the CEO, said the city’s prior report had been delivered to the committee in August 2024 and that the committee had previously deferred resolving the discrepancy to allow LADWP, LA Sanitation, and the chief executive office to reconcile numbers.

Votes at a glance: Agenda Item 2 (amended) — adopted; recorded as five yes, zero no, zero abstain. The transcript shows a separate agenda item (Item 3) approved earlier in the meeting with a four‑yes vote.

The committee directed staff to finalize the revised municipal inventory using the operational‑control scope, to return with the finalized inventory and supporting slides by March 1 so departments and budget staff can incorporate the results, and to include additional feasibility information (for example, on electrification of heavy vehicles) in future reports.

Ending: Presenters and committee members said the revised inventory will become the working baseline for near‑term budget and climate planning; staff will present the finalized numbers and supporting details to the committee on the March 1 schedule change approved by the committee.