Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman took turns Thursday evening selling their environmental records — and painting starkly different pictures of the city’s performance under Bass’ leadership.
The two mayoral candidates, appearing in separate “fireside chats” at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College downtown, cast themselves as strong environmentalists before the crowd of about 200 people.
Raman touted her vote on the City Council to ban and phase out new oil drilling within city limits, and the passage of her ordinance to ban most gas appliances in new constructions, an essential step in the energy transition that does not necessarily raise building costs.
Bass talked about her efforts to wean L.A. city completely off of coal-generated power, which it achieved in December 2025, and turning the switch on for one of the largest solar projects in the nation.
“I regularly interact with international and national leaders, and I want to assure you, we have an international, a national reputation for our work on environmental concerns,” Bass said at the L.A. Mayoral Environmental Forum, which was hosted by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters .
Under questioning from LAist’s Erin Stone,Bass was forced to spend much of her time defending her record, including on the Palisades fire and Lineage warehouse fire and her proposal to cut the city’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Office as the city faced a $1-billion budget shortfall.
During her time on stage, Raman described the controversies as a larger trend in the Bass administration.
“To me, for this administration — for the Bass administration — climate has not been a priority,” Raman said. “I feel like the focus on becoming a climate leader has been lost over the last few years, and I’m running to bring that urgency back to the seat again.”
Bass defended her proposal to cut the climate office amid the budget crunch, which the City Council rejected. She then quietly fired and later replaced the office’s director. Bass argued that while the small organization, focused on coordinating L.A.’s climate solutions, is important, the office had not completed one of its main goals: creating a climate action plan.
“It’s extremely important to me to have these programs be as effective as possible,” she said. “And sometimes you need to revamp programs to make them more effective.”
Raman pointed to a larger trend, saying the city, under Bass’ leadership, had taken funding away from climate priorities such as urban trees.
“We’re giving out big raises to the LAPD. We’re giving out big handouts to things like refurbishing a new Convention Center,” she said. “Billions of dollars from our budget are being committed towards what I think is unnecessary expenditure.”
As the chats turned to the Palisades fire, Bass assured Angelenos the city’s emergency preparedness is “light years better today” than during the fire. Bass pointed to the fire department’s new fire chief and said the city would march into the state’s land holding to clear hazardous brush if the state does not do its part. However, she said, the fire department still needs to be much larger.
She said the bottleneck in recovery is not the city’s permitting process but instead insurance companies unwilling to pay survivors and banks that are reluctant to finance rebuilding.
In the June primary, neither candidate broke 20% in the Palisades. Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the fire, garnered 51%.
As for the Lineage fire, Bass acknowledged communication missteps. Bass had commented that the air wasn’t dangerous, despite residents reporting feeling sick. The public also received conflicting information and messaging on whether ammonia, a toxic chemical, was present in the smoke.
Both candidates agreed the city should no longer solely rely on external agencies for air quality information. Bass called for better evacuation planning and bigger fines. Raman said industrial facilities that push right up against residential neighborhoods should face a higher scrutiny from the city.
Bass said she remained proud of her environmental record.
“I think it makes a difference, a record versus intentions,” Bass said when asked what differentiates her from her opponent. “I have a record. She has wonderful ideas and plans, but she’s been there twice as long as I have — and the question is, what actually has she produced?”
Despite the debate over the mayor’s record, Bass and Raman share many of the same climate goals. Raman’s climate and environment proposals and the mayor’s climate action plan both call for electrifying the city’s fleet of vehicles and building electric charging stations, as well as improving public transit and biking infrastructure to get Angelenos out of cars in the first place. They both call for increasing public green space throughout L.A. and sourcing 70% of the city’s water locally.
The environment remains a low priority on the list of quality-of-life issues facing L.A. County residents, according to a March survey from UCLA, with survey respondents reporting a neutral satisfaction on the state of environmental issues.
Yet Los Angeles — like much of the world — finds itself at a critical moment. Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme heat events, which kill thousands of Californians every decade. The Colorado River, a significant source of water for the Southland, is dwindling to record lows.
Just this Wednesday, the United Nations admitted Earth lost its chance to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, a longtime goal among nations and climate advocates.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
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