The PG&E Protests in Hunters Point

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice organized the protest because in September PG&E officials declared to the California Independent System Operator that the plant would be shut down by April. Now that this date has passed, Hunters Point resident are fed up and are willing to close down the plant themselves since the government is not taking action. The life expectancy of this plant was 25 years, but the plant has been in operation for 77 years. PG&E Vice President told an environmental representative that they will begin the closure process “eight days after the rain stops.”

Marie Harrison, of Greenaction and a Hunters Point resident, knows first-hand the irreversible damage PG&E causes. Harrison has raised three children and six grandchildren in the neighborhood; at one point she was advised by a doctor to move away from Hunters Point for the sake of her son’s asthma.

“Its disheartening that 40 years ago they [PG&E] knew that they were slowly killing the people here,” said Harrison.

She also knows of two childhood deaths, just blocks away from the plant, due to asthma attacks. When the asthma goes undiagnosed, these attacks without the proper care are deadly.

“We aren’t important here,” explained Harrison referring to the disproportionate number of African Americans in Hunters Point. “There are a lot of parties responsible like the city Planning Department who is supposed to make San Francisco a healthy place.”

The power plant is located across the street from low-income housing at Evans and Middlepoint Streets. In the housing complex asthma is common among children, and cancer among middle-aged adults, and nosebleeds are prone to happen at any given time. As Harrison pointed out, that community is not important to many others, especially the media.

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