Dow Jones

December 9, 2004

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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!

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Protestors: Plan To Shut PG&E's Power Plant "Hollow"

By Mark Golden
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Despite a new plan to close San Francisco's gas-fired Hunters Point power plant in 2006, about 100 people stood outside PG&E Corp.'s (PCG) Hunter's Point generating station in San Francisco Wednesday, demanding the old plant be shut down immediately, or at least that they be given "a date certain."

The protest, according to Bradley Angel, executive director of area group Greenaction, was the beginning of a new civil-disobedience campaign that will continue to target the power plant and PG&E, as well as government agencies seen responsible for the plant's continued operation.

Ten of the protesters blocked the main driveway to the 75-year-old plant, arms linked in the pouring rain, willing to be arrested, but police only stood by while trucks used another driveway. PG&E and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown agreed to shut the plant in 1998, and the new date of 2006 is highly conditioned, said protesters, who claimed that 50% of the children in the nearby residential area have asthma.

"For the last eight years, we have been lied to. This new date has already taken wings and flown away. We must shut this plant down," said Marie Harrison, also with Greenaction.

In 2000, a San Francisco Public Health Department study said Bayview-Hunters Point had by far the city's highest asthma hospitalization rate - more than double the citywide average.

"I'm willing to be arrested because the government isn't willing to shut this plant down, so we have to," said local high-school teacher and neighborhood resident, Mishwa Lee, one of those blocking the driveway. She added that many of her students have asthma.

PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said that the utility can't shut the plant until the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's high-voltage grid and maintains a reliable electric system, tells PG&E to do so.
" PG&E's commitment to shutting the plant is clear. We would shut it down today if we could, but we don't control that," said Moreno.

Through next year at least, the ISO is paying PG&E under contract to keep the plant operational and the plant generates electricity as ordered by the ISO. The plan adopted last month calls for this "reliability-must-run" contract to end Dec. 31, 2005, and PG&E has said it will close the plant once the ISO releases it from the contract. However, for the Hunters Point contract to be discontinued, PG&E must construct the new 230-kilovolt Jefferson-Martin transmission line and complete several smaller transmission upgrades. It's uncertain whether the Jefferson-Martin line will be completed in time for the plant to close in 2006. And, the ISO said last month, if the northern California economy kicks into higher gear, the closure of the Hunters Point plant could again be delayed. Power consumption within the city limits peaked this past summer at a level the ISO didn't expect until the summer of 2006.
Community activists admit that the Hunters Point power plant is only one of several huge pollutants in their neighborhood. In addition to Hunters Point and Mirant Corp.'s (MIR) Potrero generating station, the area hosts two Superfund sites, the city's main garbage processing plant, and a major freeway. PG&E's Moreno said that his company's plant is operating fully within local, state and federal environmental regulations.

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