Peoples Earth Day A Success!

On Saturday April 20th hundreds of community residents, young and old, joined together for People's Earth Day at India Basin Park in Bayview Hunters Point., San Francisco. The event was held next to the PG&E Hunters Point power plant, one of the oldest and dirtiest fossil fuel power plants in the stae. The breezy day was filled with music, spoken word, theater, face painting, information tables and more. The sun shinned on four solar panels, which provided clean energy for the day's festivities.

Hundreds of youth from Bayview Hunters Point attended, performed, spoke out, and led the mid-afternoon march to the front gates of the PG&E power plant to demand its closure - and to support green energy.

At three o'clock all the people from People's Earth Day gathered together and marched around the PG&E power plant. Powerful chants came out of the people's hearts and minds as they hung art from PG&E's fence. At the end of the march the people gathered back at the park to hear powerful community people speak out about the need to immediately shut down the power plant. Elders and youth united in this spirited day of education and action!

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4/20/02 Peoples Earth Day Environmental Justice, Green Energy and Community Health Celebration Saturday, April 20, 2002 India Basin Park, Bayview Hunters Point San Francisco - next to the polluting PG&E Power Plant.

For more information, contact:

LEJ	(415) 508-0575

Hundreds of Community Youth Demand Green Energy and Closure of Polluting PG&E Power Plant

Community Groups & Environmentalists Join Forces to Demand Clean Energy and Environmental Justice for San Francisco!

San Francisco, CA San Francisco's Public School students led by members of Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) and Greenaction staged a renewable energy fair and march at the base of the infamous Hunters Point Power Plant. The event comes just weeks after the City's release of a draft energy plan designed to address San Francisco's future energy requirements. Dozens of community-based and environmental groups joined together in this unprecedented Hunters Point event to advocate for progressive energy production and conservation measures. Highlights of the day included solar energy demonstrations, electric vehicles, energy efficient appliance giveaways, and a march around the Power Plant.

The closure of the PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant presents a number of energy producing options for San Francisco. However, as presented in the City's Draft Energy Plan, none of the proposed alternatives to the Hunters Point Plant involve the use of solar or wind technologies, the least polluting forms of alternative energy. In addition, the plan does not require large consumers such as industries or giant commercial complexes, to adhere to stricter conservation measures. After more than seven decades of life threatening pollution, residents and advocates of Bayview Hunters Point, Potrero, and surrounding communities are savvy enough to know that they shouldn't have to choose one form of pollution over another. "I'm a proud mother in this community " says Sasha Galloway-G once a seventeen year-old organizer with LEJ " I want my son to grow up in a cleaner and safer environment than I have."

"We demand the closure of the PG&E plant," said Marie Harrison, long-time Bayview Hunters Point community leader and Greenaction's Green Energy campaigner. "Our community has a right to clean air and environmental justice."

In 1998 the City signed an agreement with PG&E to "permanently shut down the Hunters Point Power Plant as soon as the facility is no longer needed to sustain electric reliability in San Francisco and the surrounding areaŠ" Complicating matters, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had designated the facility under as a 'must-run' facility in order to ensure reliability. Under this restriction, the closure of Hunters Point Power Plant hinges on the City's ability to provide alternative, reliable means for city-based energy production. The concern of local energy and community activists is that the City's newest proposals are not serious enough about reducing San Francisco's demand for energy, and they do not effectively contrast the environmental or health costs of the proposed options against the possibilities of emerging technologies.

In addition, PG&E has utterly failed to follow through on a number of agreed upon safety measures that were to be implemented prior to the Plant's impending closure. These steps include the replacement of a dilapidated pedestrian bridge over "PG&E Lagoon", removal of several diesel tanks within yards of homes, and the establishment of a functional community emergency response plan. These tasks were to have begun in 2000, but have been stalled.

Organizers of this year's Peoples Earthday collected artistic images of nature from public school groups throughout the city and posted them along the Power Plant's fence, sending a clear message to city and state regulators, " Power Plants and other forms of polluting industry do not belong near homes or schools." Literacy for Environmental Justice and Greenaction are planning their next demonstration to target State Energy Regulators.