City tries to site power plants closer to BVHP

City tries to site power plants closer to BVHP

Before one more baby or grandmother dies, we must stand up!

by Marie Harrison

In a shocking move that promises to pit Bay View Hunters Point residents against the powers that be, San Francisco officials announced they are looking favorably at siting combustion turbines (CTs) closer to our already pollution-impacted community. In a meeting Thursday at City Hall, Jesse Blout, director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, representatives from the City Attorney’s Office, staff from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, other City departments, and Sophie Maxwell’s office presented the plan to a group containing few community residents.

How’s this for another choke … gasp … hack … bombshell for a community already suffering from some of the worst power plant pollution in the Bay Area? Apparently, City officials don’t think it matters to residents if they move these fossil fuel dinosaurs, from the an already bad site at the Mirant Potrero Power Plant, three blocks closer to Bay View Hunters Point next to the Port of San Francisco North Container Terminal!

Think again!

Has anybody figured out that this is a community that is sick of being taken for granted? Tired of being used and abused? Weary of conversations and promises that always melt away in the light of day? It’s time residents started representing themselves at these meetings where their lives count for naught.

That wasn’t the only bombshell dropped at this meeting. Apparently the City is trying to negotiate a comprehensive agreement with the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to close both PG&E Hunters Point and Mirant Power Plants. Sounds good, huh?

Look a little closer, though, and you find that the closure date for Hunters Point has taken wings again. Now the City is conceding that Hunters Point won’t close at the end of 2005. When did they stop fighting for the health of their residents? Did the City run out of fight when it realized it would have problems siting its fossil fuel-burning CTs?

We’re not against a comprehensive agreement to get rid of fossil fuel in Southeast San Francisco. We are against agreements that have no teeth and pit one community against another.

Current negotiations contain no guarantees that either plant will close. These “understandings” aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, since they depend wholly on the discretion of the CAISO to determine what is needed for electrical reliability.

We all need to “get real” about this: the PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant could have been closed three years ago. Instead, it has become a hostage to the power industry, which is only interested in building new power plants and transmission projects. This is just another mirage — there’s no water in this desert.

It’s time we said “No!” It’s time we plant our feet firmly in front of the PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant and refused to tolerate one more case of asthma, one more sick child or one more grandmother dying before her time. It’s time we looked this Goliath in the eye and took up our biblical sling.

We also need to put our leaders on notice. Comprehensive agreements that aren’t enforceable are just a distraction.

We need to keep our eyes on the prize: keeping our residents safe and healthy and making a better future for our families. Moving new combustion turbines closer to our neighborhoods won’t do it; and neither will allowing outdated and polluting power plants to stay open.

It’s time that Mayor Gavin Newsom stepped up to the plate and worked closely with the District 10 Supervisor to end this reign of polluters. They should be standing with residents — not skulking around in backrooms, making deals with polluters.

For more information, email Marie at marie [at] greenaction.org or visit http://www.greenaction.org.