Stopping gas-fired power plants - in Hayward, Bay Area, and beyond
In 2001, faced with an apparent energy shortage, California revised state law to promote development of fossil-fueled power plants. The changes in the law undermined environmental protections. Later it was discovered that the `shortage' was caused not by underdeveloped energy infrastructure, but by market manipulation by companies like Enron and Calpine - but the law was never changed back.
Forty new fossil-fuel plants have proliferated around the state since 2001, representing 14,000 megawatts (MW), enough to power 14 million homes. Seven more plants are under construction, representing 2,500 MW; 21 more have been approved representing 25,000 MW; and another 26 plants, with a capacity of over 11,000 MW, are in the approval process now. Very few projects in the state have ever been denied. California currently gets 45% of its electricity from natural gas, making this the state's primary source of electricity - and of greenhouse-gas emissions in the electrical sector.
Power-plant operators enjoy guaranteed returns from Californians. They are paid not just for the electricity they produce but also for their capacity to produce. They are routinely paid to sit idle. We already have overbuilt capacity, needlessly placing major polluters in poor and minority communities and in environmentally sensitive locations.
The California Energy Commission did recently reject a plant proposed here in the Bay Area in Hayward. A strong coalition formed to stop the Eastshore Energy Center. This success has given new hope to people trying to stop other plants.
We in Hayward are working to stop another plant planned for our city. The author of this article (as an individual) earned a "remand" (revocation) of the air-pollution permit issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for the Calpine plant planned on the Bay shoreline in Hayward. When Calpine attempted to have the permit reissued, it was met by a coalition including the Sierra Club, Rep. Pete Stark, the California Audubon Society, Earthjustice, Communities for a Better Environment, Golden Gate University's Environmental Law and Justice Clinic, Alameda County Public Health Department, California Native Plant Society, and many other organizations and agencies and thousands of individuals. We proved that the 2001 design is antiquated by today's standards, with the potential to emit over twice as much, of some of the worst pollutants, as a modern design. It would be the fifth-highest polluter in the Bay Area, emitting over 1.8 million tons per year of pollutants, including greenhouse gases, into our air. We proved that it would be a violation of federal law to permit the facility again.
Four other natural-gas-fired plants are currently being planned in the Bay Area and have so far gone largely unscrutinized.
- Willow Pass Generating Station - 550 MW in Pittsburg, two miles west of the city center on the shore of Suisun Bay. It would be approximately 500 feet from residences. Pittsburgh already has six power plants and is slated to continue to be the dumping place for Bay-area polluters.
- Gateway Generating Station (formerly Contra Costa Power Plant) - 530 MW & Marsh Landing Generating Station - 930 MW - both just north of Antioch near Pittsburgh on the south shore of the San Joaquin River, just west of Highway 4 and the Antioch Bridge, near the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge, a marina, and the East Bay Regional Park District's Antioch Regional Shoreline. There are also homes nearby.
- East Altamont Energy Center - 1,000 MW in unincorporated Alameda County, approximately one mile west of the San Joaquin County line and 1.0 mile southeast of the Contra Costa County line. The site is bordered by Byron-Bethany Road to the north, Kelso Road to the south, and Mountain House Road to the west.
If we pay for these plants and allow them to operate, they could pollute our environment for 30 - 50 years and stifle renewable-energy development.
Sierra Club moves to oppose the natural gas rush
The state's Energy Action Plan, a recent executive order by the governor, and the California Air Resources Board's Climate Protection Plan all call for expanding renewable energy to 33% by 2020, with a further goal of 50% renewables by 2035. A recent California Public Utilities Commission staff report warned that to meet these requirements, all new electric generation must be renewable. Large-scale development of new conventional natural-gas plants is not compatible with the state's commitments.
In January, Sierra Club California voted to oppose licensing of any new natural-gas-fired power plants larger than 50 MW. (This policy does not apply to alternative technologies using natural-gas fuel such as cogeneration plants, renewables with natural-gas back-up, large fuel-cell facilities, and biogas if they protect air quality and significantly reduce fossil-fuel consumption and carbon emissions.)
WhatYouCanDo
To work with the Bay Chapter's Energy Committee to fight the four plants proposed in our region, contact conservation organizer or call (510)848-0800, ext. 306