San Francisco Examiner

July 9th, 2004

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Power play

PUC delays vote in heated PG&E project.

BY Jo Stanley
San Francisco Examiner Staff Writer

The California Public Utilities Commission put off a key vote Thursday that environmental activists and Bayview residents hoped would bring them a step closer to the shuttering of Hunters Point Power Plant.

" It was supposed to be 2005, then it was 2006," said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, referring to the potential closure of the decades-old plant. "It's a date that keeps moving."

A $207 million PG&E plan, dubbed the Jefferson-Martin project, would string high-voltage power lines along a 27-mile stretch of the Peninsula and into San Francisco and help make possible the closure of the Hunters Point plant. The proposed path includes residential areas and a handful of schools, and Peninsula residents have launched protests, citing electromagnetic field radiation emitted by the power lines as a possible source of a wide variety of illnesses.

But in Bayview, community members for years have cited health concerns of their own in their campaign to have the aging power plant shut down, including skyrocketing asthma rates and poor air quality.

Community advocates in The City, such as Bradley Angel at Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, say the Bayview plant's two active units continue to spew nitrogen oxides and other harmful materials into the air, contributing to health woes in the area. He argues that the plant should be shut down immediately.

" Bayview-Hunters Point is seen as expendable," he said.

Gregg Fishman of the California Independent System Operator, the agency charged with making sure there's enough power to avoid blackouts, said the plant's services are currently necessary -- not just to keep the lights on in San Francisco but also on the Peninsula, where no such power plants have been contemplated, and parts of the South Bay as well.

The ultimate decision about the Hunters Point plant rests with the ISO. The agency has indicated that once the Jefferson-Martin project is built, along with other PG&E projects to better connect the region, the power plant can stop functioning.

" That would be a victory," Maxwell said.

Operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the plant is capable of producing 215 megawatts of power but is mostly used as a safe-gap when other supplies fail. It has been meeting air-quality standards, officials say, but won't for much longer. PG&E has applied for a permit extension after tighter limits begin in 2005, based on pollution-saving credits it earned over the years.

If the state utilities commissioners vote to go ahead with the Jefferson-Martin project in August, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said, it's possible construction could begin later this year and be done around the end of next year.

Portrait of a power plant

Operated by: PG&E
Location: 1000 Evans Ave. between the Hunters View Housing Project and San Francisco Bay
Current maximum production: 215 megawatts, or electricity for 215,000 customers
Unit 1 -- Built in 1929. Converted to gas turbines in 1976. Currently used only when other sources fail or needs surge.
Units 2 & 3 -- Built after World War II, shut down in 2000. Used to support other units on site, but not to generate power.
Unit 4 -- Built in 1958, uses natural gas. Does not operate continuously.

Nitrogen Oxide Emissions

1997 -- Over 600 tons*
2001 -- Under 200 tons*

* Both figures were then within allowable state levels, which are set to drop significantly as of Jan. 5, 2005.

Staff writer Justin Nyberg contributed to this story.