By Don Paul

WHATEVER THE FATE of the new charter amendment for a municipal energy board that's going before the San Francisco voters in November, the city faces a looming energy crisis that should be tackled by the Board of Supervisors using means that are already at hand.

The supervisors should take immediate steps to increase conservation and load-shifting and decrease demand while furthering the installation of renewable-energy sources that will offer alternatives to the two fossil-fuel plants still burning in San Francisco's much-polluted southeast. Last November voters passed Propositions B and H to empower the supes to take just such action.

Sup. Tom Ammiano's Prop. H gave the board authority to issue revenue bonds for the creation of renewable energy and for energy conservation programs. Sup. Mark Leno's Prop. B approved the sale of $100 million in revenue bonds for renewable energy on city property. In addition, Section 9.107 of the City Charter empowers the board to issue revenue bonds for replacement of energy and water facilities and for improvement of energy efficiency and conservation.

Here's why such steps are urgent now.

The city needs 900 megawatts for its peak demand of electrical power.

Demand is currently supplied through the following mix into the city's grid: a maximum of 362 megawatts from the Mirant Corp.'s Potrero Hill plant, a maximum of 215 megawatts from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s Hunters Point plant, a springtime maximum of 400 megawatts of hydroelectric power from the Hetch Hetchy dam, and 650 to 698 megawatts from transmission lines that bring power in from outside of San Francisco.

California's Independent Systems Operator determine what's necessary for the state's entire gird as well as the flow of electrical power locally.

Mirant expects to shut down its largest turbine at Potrero Hill, the 206-megawatt Unit 3, no later than January 2004 for a retrofitting that's mandatory by January 2005. Mirant expects Unit 3 to be down for at least six months. The city's Department of the Environment expects that PG&E's Hunters Point plant, California's oldest power plant, may be called on to operate at maximal output during that period – and that it may fail under that stress. Lights could again go out in San Francisco at the same time as southeast residents are breathing a peak onslaught of pollutants from the Hunters Point plant.

We call on the supervisors to avert this scenario. The city as a whole should move as it never has to implement solutions through renewable energy and conservation. The city's present plan of building three 50-megawatt peaker plants on the Potrero Hill site to replace the Hunters Point plant is roundly and justly condemned by residents of the southeast. The people of San Francisco have shown again and again that they don't want any more fossil-fuel generation here – they want an optimum of solar, tidal, and wind power.

Organizations active in San Francisco's southeast have worked tirelessly for such a change – the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, Communities for a Better Environment, Greenaction, and Literacy for Environmental Justice among them. Folks throughout the southeast are more than ready to install renewable energy and pull the plug on the plants outside their windows.

We thank Sup. Matt Gonzalez for trying to put real "public power" in the charter amendment. We hope the whole board will now provide leadership that accords with San Francisco voters' political will.