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Hi all,<br>
<br>
First a quick update.<br>
<br>
As expected we could not stop Maxwell's CT resolution from escaping the
Land Use Committee on Monday. SFPUC staff spouted the same extremely
clever and deceptive illusions that they presented to the SFPUC
Commissioners, but the Committee members (Maxwell, McGoldrick and
Sandoval) bought it. Infamous Health Dept. Director Mitch Katz was also
on hand to claim with the SFPUC staff that the CTs would vastly
decrease pollution, and he justified his statements in part by
describing plans to both use street cleaners to suck particulates off
of the streets, and to also buy pollution credits to technically offset
the CTs' NOX emissions! Recall that this is the same sort of evil
nonsense that Katz spouted about the Lennar construction site. Dr. Katz
is fast becoming public health enemy #1. Katz and the SFPUC's Barbara
Hale described these measures as resulting in a total zeroing out of of
the pollution from the CTs. SFPUC Assistant GM Tony Irons claimed that
the SFPUC's plan was to -never- turn on the CTs and to only have them
available for emergencies! Looking at the JPower contract term sheet,
that statement is clearly, blatantly false.<br>
<br>
Yesterday, Tuesday Oct 30, Maxwell's resolution went before the full
Board of Supervisors. Sierra Club, Our City, the SF Green Party, and
APRI did extensive lobbying and succeeded in really shaking up the
issue; and we came one vote away from getting a one week continuance on
the resolution. Michela Alioto-Pier, Ross Mirkarimi, and Chris Daly
stood strongly on our side, and in the first continuance vote Tom
Ammiano, and Gerardo Sandoval had been sufficiently convinced to doubt
that they sided with us on that vote. Throughout the hearing, Jake
McGoldrick totally betrayed us and repeatedly threw softball questions
to the SFPUC staff and strongly pushed for the CTs. Then, something
shocking happened. After a very long hearing of several Supervisors
asking tough questions of the SFPUC staff and being dealt the same
extremely clever lies that the Committee had heard the day before, the
Supervisors then prepared for a final vote. Mirkarimi and Ammiano first
introduced an amendment to the resolution which mandated that Mirant be
guaranteed to close before the CT's would be turned on. Then, at the
very moment the final vote was about to take place, Board President
Supervisor Aaron Peskin suddenly announced from his podium that he had
just heard from the Mayor's office that, AT THAT VERY MOMENT, they were
completing negotiations with Mirant corporation to 'guarantee' that the
Mirant plant would be shut down when Cal ISO released it from RMR
status. Peskin went on to state that Mirant would be signing the
agreement in about '27 minutes' AFTER the Board vote. Based only on
this verbal hearsay by Peskin, the Board then took up the final vote,
and Ammiano and Sandoval abandoned us on that final vote. This enabled
the Resolution to pass 8 to 3 and sending a much stronger pro CT
message to the SFPUC Commissioners for today's meeting. During the
preceding dialog, SFPUC staff stated that the resolution needed to be
passed that day, because the State Department of Water Resources had
recently sent the SFPUC a letter saying that it would back out of its
agreement to buy the electricity from the CTs unless the Board of
Supervisors showed immediate support for the CTs. (SFPUC staff hadn't
mentioned one word about this in the Land Use hearing.) This letter
puts high pressure on the SFPUC Commissioners to approve the finalized
JPower contract today.<br>
<br>
The upshot of all this is that we who are in leadership on this
campaign need to be in Room 400 today to strongly urge Sklar,
Hochschild, Normandy, and Cane to stand firm with us and continue
demanding another alternative to the CTs, especially if the Mayor was
telling the truth and Mirant has agreed to close.<br>
<br>
Our key arguments will likely best focus on Normandy's remaining three
unresolved questions (assuming that Mirant has agreed to close) -<br>
<br>
- Will the City have the power to mandate that the CT plant will never
be turned on except in the case of peak power emergencies?<br>
<br>
- Are these CTs the best option for -today- when there are likely other
completely non-polluting alternatives available?<br>
<br>
and<br>
<br>
- How much will the CT plant cost the City? (And can we use that money
to build an alternative solution instead.) (At this point the CTs will
cost the City at least $60 million, up to $190 million total if we have
to buy the CT electricity that PG&E has refused to buy, and
$230-$500 million if the City owned alternative that was put back on
the table is chosen.) <br>
<br>
The SFPUC staff claimed on Monday that Commissioner Sklar -will- be at
the meeting, however after reviewing all of the hearing videos, I
believe that this is still unclear. So we especially need to be there
to demand that the vote be postponed until Sklar is present, if he is
in fact out of town today.<br>
<br>
Here are the details again for the SFPUC meeting:<br>
<br>
<span class="content"><strong>AGENDA<br>
SPECIAL MEETING<br>
</strong><br>
Wednesday, October 31, 2007<br>
<strong>2:30 P.M. NOTE DIFFERENT DAY/START TIME</strong><br>
City Hall, Room 400<br>
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place</span><br>
<br>
<strong>ORDER OF BUSINESS</strong>
<p>1. Call to Order </p>
<p>2. Roll Call </p>
<p><strong>CLOSED SESSION</strong> </p>
<p>3. Public comments on matters to be discussed in Closed Session. </p>
<p>4. Motion on whether to assert the attorney-client privilege
regarding the matters listed below as Conference with Legal Counsel. </p>
<p>THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION WILL GO INTO CLOSED SESSION TO
DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING ITEMS: </p>
<p>5. Conference with Real Property Negotiator – Pursuant to
Sunshine Ordinance Section 67.8 (a)(2), Govt. Code section 54956.8:
Property: located at 25th Street and Maryland in San Francisco,
California. (Hale) <br>
<br>
Negotiator for the SFPUC: Barbara Hale Negotiator: JPower. </p>
<p>6. Conference with Legal Counsel – Pursuant to California
Government Code Section 54956.9 (b) and (c) and San Francisco
Administrative Code Section 67.10 (d) (2) Anticipated Litigation: As
defendant. (Ambrose) </p>
<p>FOLLOWING THE CLOSED SESSION, THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION WILL
RECONVENE IN OPEN SESSION. </p>
<p>7. Announcement following Closed Session. </p>
<p>8. Motion regarding whether to disclose the discussions during
Closed Session. </p>
<p>9. Staff presentation, discussion and action related to matters
addressed in the SFPUC Resolution No 07-0137, including the proposed
San Francisco Electric Reliability Project (the Combustion Turbines
(CTs) and related facilities), the JPower agreements and leases, and
any related agreements, authorizations and permits required from other
City Departments or federal, state or local agencies pertaining to this
Project, and adopting findings pursuant to the California Environmental
Quality Act. (Leal, Irons, Hale). </p>
<p>ADJOURNMENT of the Special Meeting</p>
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