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Huge turnout needed Monday, May 5, 9am, City Hall steps
by Eric Brooks
This is an urgent moment in San Francisco and world history.
Though nearly every major environmental and social justice group has voiced strong opposition to the building of new fossil fuel power plants – sometimes referred to as “peaker plants” – in San Francisco, next Monday, May 5, our Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) will outrageously seek permission to build a polluting natural gas power plant in San Francisco within the next year.
Worse still, if approved, this plant will be built in our most environmentally damaged and vulnerable neighborhood, Bayview Hunters Point. Meanwhile, new reports surface nearly every week that the global warming crisis is becoming much more serious much more rapidly than previously believed, and our entire planet is in danger.
Unfortunately, Mayor Gavin Newsom and our Board of Supervisors are wavering and still have not come out in majority opposition to this disastrous power plant! This means that the plant construction could be approved as early as next week.
It is absolutely critical that we turn out in huge numbers on the City Hall Polk Street steps next Monday, May 5, 9-10 a.m., to show the mayor and Board of Supervisors that San Franciscans will not tolerate further inaction and that we demand that this unacceptable power plant project be stopped immediately. We must send a message to the world that San Francisco has decided to lead the planet to a clean energy future by permanently halting all plans to build fossil fuel power plants.
On Monday, a letter with 16 signatories, from the Sierra Club and the Green Party to the Latino Issues Forum, the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment and several Bayview Hunters Point organizations, including the Bay View newspaper, was sent to Mayor Newsom and the Board urging “the City of San Francisco to abandon its plan to build new fossil fuel-burning power plants” and instead “to support the creation of a power plant-free action plan to close the (existing Mirant) Potrero plant by increasing San Francisco’s reliance on renewable energy and ending its dependence on fossil fuels.”
“San Francisco must not construct any amount of unnecessary fossil fuel energy generation, especially amongst its most disadvantaged and environmentally vulnerable communities at a time when we must act to reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions.
“Please take a bold step forward and table the outdated power plant proposal in favor of the creation of a truly revolutionary plan for a renewable energy future for San Francisco and the planet,” the letter concluded.
No new plant needed to close old Mirant plant
The SFPUC claims that the proposed natural gas plant is necessary to close an older, more polluting plant in Potrero Hill owned by Mirant Corp. This claim is false. Ninety-seven percent of the Mirant electricity is generated by a large natural gas turbine that produces almost exactly the same amount of air pollution as the proposed new gas plant.
All of the excess air pollution at the Mirant site comes from a set of three very old and dirty diesel powered generators that only produce 3 percent of Mirant’s electricity. These diesel generators could easily be shut down with no significant loss of electricity security to the City.
So the SFPUC outrageously seeks to waste hundreds of millions of dollars – funds that could be used to build massive amounts of solar, wind and other renewables – to install a power plant that emits the same air pollution as the plant that is already there!
New power line also makes plant unnecessary
The Board of Supervisors just approved a new power transmission line called the Transbay Cable, which will deliver enough new energy capacity to San Francisco to provide a full one half of the electricity we use daily. This new cable makes certain that the old diesels are not necessary and makes the idea of building another polluting fossil fuel power plant in San Francisco utterly ridiculous.
Come to the rally!
The rally prior to the committee hearing where a vote on the power plant contract is expected will be held in front of San Francisco City Hall on the Polk Street steps on Monday, May 5, 9-10 a.m. If you can, make your own sign that expresses how you feel about this alarming power plant project and its potentially terrible impact on our community and the world.
Bring everyone you know who cares about the future of San Francisco and the planet. Directly following the rally, join other ralliers to attend the hearing in City Hall and voice your opinion to the Board of Supervisors.
For more information, see http://our-city.org/campaigns/index.html.
