Power-plant questions

ON THE SURFACE it looks like a fine idea: San Francisco gets four relatively clean-burning power plants, free, as part of the settlement of a state lawsuit against Williams Energy Co. of Tulsa, Okla. The new plants can replace the electricity generated at the dirty, aging, and unsafe Hunters Point power plant, owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The combustion-turbine generators would also add to the city-owned generating system and thus be a big step in the direction of public power.

What's not to like?

Well, for starters, the deal isn't quite so simple. It's part of a pact negotiated in secret by Attorney General Bill Lockyer to settle charges that Williams cheated California on energy sales – and the state and the city could have done a lot better. The city will have to pay for the cost of building facilities to house the plants and to hook them up to the grid – an estimated $145 million. And while the plants create less ozone than the Hunters Point one, they're still fossil-fuel generators and not by any means pollution free. In fact, it's entirely possible that by the time the city is done paying to get the plants running, they'll be obsolete: San Francisco can and should move aggressively to reduce reliance on nonrenewable energy sources, and in 10 years, when the last payments on the plants would be made, solar, wind, and other new technologies may eliminate the need for any sort of fossil-fuel plants in the city.

Under the terms of the Lockyer settlement, San Francisco has to have sites ready for the four turbines by Dec. 31, or the state can buy back the generators for a fraction of their value. That's a pretty quick schedule, considering the land-use, air-quality, and neighborhood issues involved.

And there's a larger concern, one that speaks to the years and years of broken promises and environmental nightmares that communities on the southeast side of the city have endured. City officials, including energy czar Ed Smeloff, all say the most logical places to put the new plants include sites just east of Potrero Hill (as well as one downtown location). It's almost certain that at least one or more of the turbines will wind up in the same part of town that has suffered for years from PG&E's plant and Mirant Corp.'s Potrero plant.

Smeloff insists the new power plants would make it possible to shut down the PG&E monster and to block further expansion of the Mirant plant. Those are crucial goals, and even Potrero neighborhood leaders say they're willing to accept the new plants if the net impact on local air quality is positive. But there is at this point no formal, official, written, legally binding guarantee that no new power plants will go into operation on the southeast side of town unless and until the Hunters Point plant ceases operation. And until that guarantee is in place, San Francisco residents shouldn't accept any deal.

Is it possible Mayor Willie Brown will work out a closed-door agreement with PG&E, Mirant, and state officials allowing the giant pollution-spewing plants to stay in business – along with the new turbines? Is it possible the residents of the most environmentally damaged neighborhoods in the city will have to suffer not less but more air pollution? Of course it is – that's exactly how this mayor has operated throughout his political career.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors needs to take an active role in this issue now, before it's too late. Why has this entire deal been done in secret, from the day Lockyer signed off on it (with the consent of City Attorney Dennis Herrera)? Why have there been no major public hearings? Why is there no comprehensive study of how these new plants fit into a plan to move toward public power (and prevent Mirant from expanding or selling its plant)?

The board should hold a series of full hearings on the power plants, the siting, the Lockyer settlement, and the role of combustion turbines in the city's energy future. Budget analyst Harvey Rose should look at the figures to see if the plants make financial sense for San Francisco. Smeloff and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission should immediately release all records related to the deal, so the public can see what's really happening here.

We're all for city-owned power plants. We're all for improving air quality in Potrero Hill and Hunters Point. We're all for anything that moves public power a step forward. But we're far from convinced that this combustion-turbine deal is good for the city.