[Sustain] Power Plant Update! & Monday Hearing Alert

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

We are, at last, very close to stopping the proposed combustion turbine
'peaker' plant project, afterwhich we will then be able to re-direct our
full attention to attack the Mirant plant head on and shut it down as
quickly as possible.

We could be a mere 2 years away from ending fossil fuel power plant
generation in San Francisco.

As you know, because of our coalition's relentless pressure on the
SFPUC, Cal ISO, Board of Supervisors, and Mayor, the Cal ISO has at last
been forced into the position of making clear what it has been
cryptically hinting at for nearly a decade - that -no- new fossil fuel
power plants are needed to shut down the Mirant Potrero power plant. The
Cal ISO has said that when the Transbay Cable comes online in 2010 it
will remove the main gas boiler at Mirant (which generates 97% of
Mirant's electricity) from must run status. The Cal ISO has said that
the remaining three diesel turbines at Mirant can be gradually upgraded
to run on natural gas if they are needed for emergency reliability, and
we know from previous Cal ISO staff statements, that Cal ISO may even
consider one, two or even all of those older turbines unnecessary for
electricity reliability once the Transbay Cable is installed.

So, what was a couple of weeks ago, a debate between putting in a new
polluting natural gas plant which would have to run 18-30 years to pay
itself off, or instead supposedly being stuck with a Mirant plant that
would still have to continue running every day; has now become a
completely different question.

The new Cal ISO letter makes clear that the SFPUC staff's claims of the
second scenario were a complete deception; and so now we have a brand
new question:

Can the City build enough solar, wind, and efficiency projects to make
even upgraded Mirant diesel turbines completely unnecessary upon, or
shortly following, the installation of the Transbay Cable in 2010?

Clearly, that is a much better question to debate.

I recommend that we -not- support the plan to upgrade the Mirant diesel
turbines, but just so we can get a sense of the foundation of this new
debate, here's the breakdown of why, even if we got stuck with such a
Mirant upgrade plan, it would still be far better than the previous
Combustion Turbine (CTs) proposal.

1) The cost of upgrading the Mirant diesels to run on natural gas would
be $60 million. (The cost of installing the CTs would have been at least
$273 million and probably would have gone much higher.)

2) According to a new study by the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District, the upgraded Mirant diesels would actually pollute -less- than
the CTs!

3) To pay off its massive cost, the CT project would have to run for
18-30 years. Because of recently spiking natural gas prices, and recent
state government limits on fossil fuel power purchasing and sales, the
City would likely have faced a crisis in its ability to pay off the CTs,
and might have been forced to run them more often, and for more than 30
years, to pay for them. This latter reality would have meant that the
CTs would have polluted -much- more than upgraded Mirant natural gas
peakers.

4) If the Mirant diesel turbines are upgraded, this will be done
gradually, one turbine at a time. So if, by the time the first turbine
was upgraded, the Transbay Cable was online, and sufficient solar, wind
and efficiency were installed; the Cal ISO might very well decide that
only the one upgraded turbine (or possibly even no turbines) was
necessary; and that the other two turbines could then simply be shut
down immediately saving tens of millions of dollars, and setting a solid
precedent for San Francisco to simply build more renewables and
efficiency and rapidly shut down even that last remaining turbine.
Clearly in this gradually phased upgrade scenario, it is highly likely
that within just a few years (most likely when the Community Choice
renewable energy project has installed its first 360 megawatts of clean
renewable capacity by around 2012) we would be shutting down -all- of
the fossil fuel power plants in the City. In other words, no more
polluting power plants at all within just 4 years!

5) In the Cal ISO options described for proceeding with the plan to
upgrade the Mirant diesels, the Cal ISO said that one of those options
would allow the City to control the operation of those upgraded turbines
and only require them to be turned on during real electricity demand
emergencies.

Now, with that potential better scenario established, I would recommend
that we stay with the strong strategy that has won us such a huge
change; and that we therefore -continue- challenging the SFPUC and Cal
ISO and -continue- to insist that -no- fossil fuel generation will be
necessary once the Transbay Cable is installed, and that the new debate
should be between either upgrading the Mirant diesels, or instead saving
ourselves that $60 million upgrade cost, and spending that money to
aggressively accelerate our installation of solar, wind, and efficiency
projects as we completely shut down Mirant in 2010! We would be truly
guiding the world strongly into a zero fossil fuel future.

Next Steps

The Board of Supervisors continued its vote on the ICC CT peaker project
contract to Tuesday, July 15, and it is likely that on that day they
will simply table the CT project.

-However- Sophie Maxwell is -still- stubbornly clinging to the CT
project and has rapidly introduced into committee for this Monday, a new
resolution (see attached pdf file) which -claims- to start a new search
for alternatives for shutting down Mirant, but which will instead simply
deceptively reinforce the same old SFPUC verbal tricks around taking the
CT project seriously. This would force the Board of Supervisors back
into yet another 'he said - she said' technical debate between the CT
project and the possible upgraded Mirant diesels project. If Maxwell
succeeds in playing her latest game, we will face yet another grueling
set of hearings comparing the CT project to other options, instead of
having the much more progressive debate over whether to upgrade the
Mirant diesels, or simply go all renewables and efficiency by 2012.

Ross Mirkarimi's office will likely introduce some strong amendments to
the Maxwell resolution that remove all of its game playing and instead
turn the City to that much better debate between the Mirant diesels and
an all renewables option; but he will not get a chance to introduce
those amendments until the Maxwell measure reaches the full Board of
Supervisors. This is because Maxwell's resolution will be heard in the
Government Audit and Oversight Committee this Monday morning where she
and her CT project ally Aaron Peskin will simply pass it on to the full
Board without real debate, and will probably stonewall any amendments.

So we have yet another golden opportunity to be heard on this issue on
Monday morning - this time, to tell Sophie Maxwell and Aaron Peskin loud
and clear that we demand an end to any more useless, time wasting
debates over the CT project, and to insist that the Supervisors now ask
the SFPUC to come up with a renewables only energy plan to close Mirant
down completely in 2010 when the Transbay cable comes online.

Keep in mind that Sophie's item is just a resolution, so don't
necessarily break your back to show up at the Monday hearing. However,
it is always good for us to get another chance to speak on this issue,
and this new hearing now gives us a chance to raise the level of debate
to a discussion of how to get -rid- of fossil fuel power plants in San
Francisco and replace them with clean renewable energy by the end of
this decade! So if you can make it, by all means do. :)

To see the hearing time, location, and details go to
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=82213
Sophie's resolution is first on the agenda, and entitled 'Closure of the
Potrero Power Plant'. (Note that although Ross and Chris Daly are listed
as co-sponsors of the item, they have now been informed of the problems
with the resolution, and will act to remove the trick language in it.)

peace

Eric Brooks

-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate 
themselves." – Che Guevara
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