[Sustain] 'Peaker' Plant Vote Delayed - Mayor Preparing Alternative

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

Our collective hard work is beginning to pay off.

Mayor Newsom has asked for a delay in the 'Peaker' vote so that he can
prepare an alternative energy plan to avoid building the Combustion
Turbine plant.

Now is where we will need to be vigilant. Part of Newsom's proposal will
be to reduce pollution at Mirant.

So we will soon need to push for a firm closure date on the Mirant plant
in the very near future (even if it is polluting less), and then hold 
the City to it.

Below is the SF Examiner article that announces Newsom's switch. Also
see the attached letter from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Board and
Mayor opposing the plant - sent Monday. (Note that Kennedy and his group
NRDC are actually a major problem to real environmentalism - but most
mainstream liberals don't know that, and to them, a letter from Kennedy
is a -big- deal.)

We're almost at the finish line all. But we'll need a last wise push to
get there. ;)

peace, Eric

http://www.examiner.com/printa-1388244~Decision_on_Potrero_power_plant_delayed.html

Decision on Potrero power plant delayed

John Upton, The Examiner
2008-05-13 10:00:00.0
Current rank: # 19 of 9,416
SAN FRANCISCO -

Mayor Gavin Newsom asked city legislators to delay a vote on a
controversial plan to build a new power plant in Potrero Hill that will
replace an older, more polluting plant, saying he needs another week to
work on an alternative strategy.

The Board of Supervisors was scheduled to vote today on a proposal to
borrow $273 million to build natural-gas-burning power plants in The
City's southeast and at the airport, but Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, the
legislation's sponsor, said Monday that she had agreed to the mayor's
request for a postponement.

The state agency charged with ensuring that Californians have reliable
electricity supplies, the California Independent Systems Operator
confirmed in a May 1 letter to the San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission that The City's plan for the new power plant was "the best
mechanism" for retiring the old Potrero power plant. The plan to build
the cleaner power plants and take other steps to replace the Mirant
plant was approved by the agency in November 2004.

Opposition, to the plan, has grown in recent months, however, with
groups including the Sierra Club, the San Francisco Planning and Urban
Research public policy nonprofit and the Bay Area Ella Baker Center for
Human Rights expressing a desire for a more renewable, less polluting
option than a fossil-fuel plant.

Newsom, who agreed in November to fast-track development proposals on
Mirant's land and waive millions of dollars in city fees if the company
closed the plant, told The Examiner on Monday that while he wants to
close Mirant, he is "desperate" to avoid building new
fossil-fuel-burning plants.

"I don't want to live to regret this decision," Newsom said. "We may
look like fools five years from now."

Newsom said he will try to come up with an "aggressive" alternative plan
to install new technology at the Mirant-owned plant to reduce pollution,
increase electricity imports from a plan in the works to bring power
into The City through a Transbay Cable, create more electricity from
renewable sources and reduce in-city electricity demand.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Ed Harrington
told supervisors last week that SFPUC staff hadn't filed proposals with
the California ISO to take different steps to replace the Mirant plant
because discussions indicated they would have "no chance of success."

jupton at sfexaminer.com


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