San Francisco Pushing Fossil Fuels Over Green Energy

John Rizzo
May 12, 2008
Beyond Chron

San Francisco talks a good talk about being a green and progressive leader, but the walk is often something quite different.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 13th), the Board of Supervisors will vote on a contract to build 200 MW of fossil fuel-burning power plants in a low-income neighborhood that is already overburdened with pollution and toxic sites. Ironically, at the same time, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is increasing spending on the fight against global warming, even in the face of a state budget deficit. What’s wrong with this picture?

This is a question that Bayview activists and environmental and civic organizations have been asking during the past year. When the city’s Public Utilities Commission resurrected an old plan to replace the old Mirant Potrero Power Plant with four natural gas-fired turbines, we assumed that the PUC Commission and the Board of Supervisors would reject it. The old Mirant plant can come down without replacing it. Instead, by narrow margins, both bodies have succeeded in pushing forward a project that would increase our reliance on fossil fuel energy, while at the same time rejecting calls for clean energy alternatives.

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