"It isn't that 20% or 25% was that hard to do; it's just that in our case we needed until 2013 to do it," he said. "And to make the point we thought that our council should actually adopt an even higher goal of 33% in order to say, 'Look, we'll do even more than you want, if you'll give us the time to allow us to do a good job of implementing it."
Increasing the proportion of renewable power in the city's portfolio means years of creating infrastructure and transmission lines to bring energy from sources like wind and geothermal turbines into the city for energy customers, he said. And that process needs both time for resource planners to plot out a course and for information about infrastructure changes to be communicated to the public, he added.
"This isn't a willingness problem, it's an ability problem," he said. "We are willing to commit in a big way to renewables, but let us do our job well — in other words, return to integrated resources planning, which is something we do well. We're willing to commit to even higher levels, but let us have enough time to let our staff do their job."
More calculated resource planning will also save ratepayers money in the long run, he said.
"If you just take the time to do it well, you can save the community money, but still meet an aggressive goal," he said. "We've got a bunch of planners, engineers and … people who do this for a living and, if given time, they can save you some money."
Former Burbank Water and Power Board President Vahe Hovanessian said the new 33% target generated a lot of board discussion before the members' unanimous approval.
