Nahai leaves LA DWP for Clinton Climate Initiative

The chief of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has resigned. David Nahai leaves as the utility struggles to address a rash of water main breaks and seeks to meet the LA mayor’s renewable energy goals.

A statement from Nahai says he’s leaving to become a senior advisor to former President Clinton’s Climate Initiative.

For two years, Nahai’s been general manager of the DWP, one of the nation’s largest city-owned utilities. He oversaw nearly nine-thousand employees and a four-billion dollar budget. Nahai had run a Century City law firm before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa named him to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners and then as head of the agency.

Nahai came under fire earlier this year when a ballot initiative designed to help the DWP install solar panels – and reduce its reliance on coal – failed. The agency gets half its electricity from coal. That makes it the dirtiest utility in the state. Nahai also has won praise for increasing the DWP’s use of renewable energy from three to 14 percent, and its campaign to reduce water use.