Why We Are Taking Action

See Also:

Community & Greenaction Blockade Entrance to PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant. Read the San Francisco Chronicle and Dow Jones newswire stories, press releases, new fact sheet “Why We Are Taking Action” and Event Flyer!

For more information, contact:

Why the People are Taking Action to Close PG&E's Hunters Point power plant

“Action Plan” for closing polluting plants is a Fraud!

On November 8, 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, and city and state officials announced an “historic action plan” to close the PG&E Hunters Point and Mirant power plants. San Francisco residents were shocked to find that the plan not only ignored their call for immediate closure of Hunters Point power plant, it also left the decision about whether to close up to plant owners.

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the agency that operates California’s electric grid, has kept the Hunters Point power plant open under a rate-payer supported “Reliability Must Run” contract (RMR). Until recently, officials claimed that the lights would go out in San Francisco if the plant closed. CAISO staff recently admitted to community members that Hunters Point actually isn’t necessary for electric reliability in San Francisco—it’s being used to ensure that the “Greater Bay Area” has enough electric power.

Contrary to claims that this deal will close the power plants, it actually pushes back the promised closure date for the PG&E power plant, and contains absolutely no guarantees that either power plant will ever be closed. Both companies can apply for new permits and would be allowed to continue operating even if the California ISO removes the RMR contracts.

Fact: The so-called “action plan” contains no firm dates for closure of either PG&E Hunters
Point or Mirant power plants.

Fact: On the same day that Newsom announced the “action plan”, PG&E modified the completion
date for the Jefferson-Martin transmission project and effectively postponed the closure of
Hunters Point into 2007. The City and CAISO “Action Plan” is really an “Inaction Plan”.

Fact: The City and CAISO’s “Action Plan” was the product of a secret deal between the California
Independent System Operator, State and City Officials.

Fact: Every year that PG&E Hunters Point power plant operates, 600 tons of air pollution is emitted
over San Francisco.

Fact: Every day that PG&E Hunters Point remains open, it discharges arsenic, cadmium, chromium,
copper, silver, lead, mercury, nickel, zinc, thallium, and chlorine into San Francisco Bay.

Fact: Closing PG&E Hunters Point power plant would have no effect on electric reliability in San
Francisco. The plant has operated for less than 60% of the last 3 years—it was closed for 8
months in 2003—causing no blackouts.

Fact: Ten percent of Bayview Hunters Point residents reported having asthma, compared to 5.6 percent nationally. Among children, the asthma rate was one in six or 15 percent.

PG&E Hunters Point is a Menace to Public Health

The health of Southeast San Francisco residents has been heavily impacted by the ongoing environmental contamination of the community’s air and water by PG&E Hunters Point power plant. Health surveys show that in Bayview Hunters Point, rates of cervical and breast cancer were found to be double the rate found in other parts of the Bay Area , and hospitalization rates for congestive heart failure, hypertension, and emphysema were found to be more than three times the statewide average . The most vulnerable residents, children and infants, are the most affected by the environmental health threats. Bayview Hunters Point and the bordering neighborhood of Potrero Hill account for more than half of all infant mortality in the San Francisco.

Bayview Hunters Point: A Community Wired For Environmental Injustice

Over half of the land in San Francisco that is zoned for industrial use is in Bayview Hunters Point. The neighborhood is home to one federal Superfund site, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the polluting and unnecessary PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant, a sewage treatment plant that handles 80% of the City’s solid wastes, 187 leaking underground fuel tanks (LUFTs) , and more 124 hazardous waste handlers regulated by the USEPA . This small community of color has also has ten times as many contaminated water dischargers on a per capita basis as the rest of San Francisco, four times as many as many polluted air dischargers, five times as many facilities storing acutely hazardous materials, three times as many underground storage tanks, and four times as many contaminated industrial sites .

Quick Facts about PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant

PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant is located on Evans Avenue between the Huntersview Public Housing Project and the San Francisco Bay. It was first put in operation in December 1929. Currently, two generators, Hunters Point Units 4 & 1 produce approximately 215 megawatts of power each year.

The PG&E Hunters Power Plant is the largest stationary source of air pollution in Bayview Hunters Point, putting out almost 600 tons of pollutants annually into the air over Southeast San Francisco. According to the USEPA, these emissions include: 321 tons of nitrous oxides; 164 tons of carbon monoxide; 52 tons of particulate matter; 13 tons of ammonia; 13 tons of volatile organic compounds; and 12 tons of sulfur dioxide.

PG&E is one of the largest combination natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the PG&E Corporation. The company has approximately 19,575 employees who carry out Pacific Gas and Electric company's primary business—the transmission and delivery of energy. PG&E is regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, BAAQMD, and the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board. It is also a Cal ISO Participating Transmission Owner (PTO).

PG&E Hunters Point power plant should be closed immediately. If the government won’t do it…the people will!