[Sustain] Real Estate Interests Tainted Taskforce Peaker Decisions

[Eric Brooks]

Written to the Board of Supervisors on July 15, 2008:

Dear Supervisors,

On July 1, 2008 in a meeting of the SF Public Utilities Commission
Citizens' Advisory Subcommittee on Energy, it was revealed by a member
of the Power Plant Taskforce, Mr. Joe Boss, that property values
affecting real estate values in Potrero Hill and at Pier 70 were a big
factor in the Taskforce's decision to push for the Combustion Turbine
'Peaker' Project. There are landholders and developers who would be
enriched by the rapid closure of the existing Mirant facility, which
would raise property values in the area.

Mr. Boss is a private real estate consultant himself with personal
financial interests of his own in that area and said openly that real
estate values were involved in the Taskforce power plant decisions.

This is the first open confirmation that Taskforce members
unconscionably weighed property values against the health and survival
of residents in the Bayview Hunters Point who would be heavily impacted
by pollution from the proposed Peaker project.

The Subcommittee meeting was recorded, and Mr. Boss can be heard making
his comments about property values in the following section:
http://www.brightlinedefense.org/files/mp3/july_1_cac_joe_boss_discusses_real_estate_and_cts.mp3

This is not the only time that Mr. Boss has been found to be
inappropriately using a position of authority to enrich real estate
interests, and even his own family and friends. The November 2007
edition of the Potrero View newspaper, on pages 1 and 20, reveals Boss's
direct involvement in other highly unethical real estate shenanigans
surrounding a redevelopment project in exactly the same geographical
area of town. You can read the Potrero View edition in question by going
to http://www.potreroview.net/archive.html
and clicking on the November 2007 link:
http://www.potreroview.net/Archives/PV_Nov_2007.pdf

Finally, it was also revealed in the same Subcommittee meeting that both
SFPUC GM Harrington, and SFPUC Deputy GM for Power Barbara Hale have now
stated openly that a proposed Mirant diesel turbine retrofit would be
-less- polluting than the proposed combustion turbine project.

A section of the meeting audio in which Hale and others discuss this is at:
http://www.brightlinedefense.org/files/mp3/july_1_2008_sfpuc_cac_comparative_emissions.mp3

In light of these new facts, I would strongly urge you to finally and
permanently reject the ICC Combustion Turbine project and any other such
project that would use the Williams Combustion Turbines to build any new
power plants in San Francisco.

Thank you,

Eric Brooks
SF Green Party &
STOPPP Coalition