January 7, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO IS at a turning point regarding energy policies that affect public health and the environment. The city will either continue relying on fossil-fuel power plants that harm the environment, or we will implement renewable energy, conservation, and efficiency programs. Actions, not words and promises, are needed.

In the coming months, we face the possibility of a new health threat – and a new opportunity to eliminate the outdated and dirty Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Mirant Corp. power plants. Under a settlement reached with Williams Energy, one of the power companies accused of price-gouging during the so-called energy crisis, San Francisco is getting four 50-megawatt natural gas-fired power plants. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city's southeast neighborhoods have been targeted as the sites of these proposed fossil-fuel plants.

Historically San Francisco has relied on two highly polluting power plants situated in the southeast part of town – the PG&E Hunters Point plant and Mirant's Potrero Hill one. Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero residents have suffered as a result of these power plants and other dirty industries being disproportionately located in their neighborhoods. This environmental racism and injustice has resulted in high rates of asthma and cancer among the mostly low-income residents living near these industrial sites.

We need energy programs that protect the health of our communities. In December the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a city electricity plan that calls for increased renewable energy and conservation – and endorses the important goal of closing both the PG&E and Mirant power plants. Residents of Bayview-Hunters Point have heard similar "goals" and promises before: the supposed 1998 deal struck by Mayor Willie Brown and PG&E to close the Hunters Point plant was never fulfilled, and PG&E is now seeking a new five-year Clean Air Act permit that would continue the pollution and injustice.

Before the city makes a decision on where to place the four new plants, the following steps are essential to ensuring a just and safe energy program:

• The outdated and unnecessary PG&E Hunters Point power plant must be closed by the end of 2003 and dismantled. The plant must be made idle immediately, and run only for short-term emergencies to avoid blackouts. The PG&E plant was closed for several months last year, and there were no brownouts or blackouts. Governor Gray Davis and the California Independent System Operator must announce their approval of the PG&E plant's closure, and this must be a condition of siting any new peaker plants (plants used only at times of greatest power demand). The proposed expansion of the Mirant plant must also be stopped.

• The new so-called peaker plants should not be installed unless proven safe and truly necessary to provide reliable energy for the city. If approved, these peakers should be used only as a temporary measure to allow installation of large-scale solar and wind power systems and truly effective conservation and efficiency measures – and the closure of the PG&E and Mirant power plants.

• Strong and mandatory conservation and energy-efficiency programs must be implemented for large businesses and industries – and these requirements must be added to the electricity plan. Look at the San Francisco skyline at night and you can see the closed office buildings blazing with light, the production of which is contributing to the very high asthma rates among children in Bayview-Hunters Point.

• The new peaker power plants should not be sited in the southeast neighborhoods of San Francisco. Residents there have borne the burden of hosting the polluting power plants for decades. Any final location must minimize the threat to public health and the environment.

• The city must conduct a thorough review, with public hearings and a comprehensive environmental impact report, to analyze the pros and cons of proposed locations for the new plants. Downtown locations such as the PG&E substation on Jessie Street and the Embarcadero should be studied first, and the neighborhoods that have already suffered should be avoided.