Shutdown authority
Daly leads effort by the air district to shut down Hunters Point power plant

By Matthew Hirsch

Regional officials may have the authority to shut down the polluting Hunters Point power plant after all, despite previous claims to the contrary (see "What Power Shortage?," 4/28/04).

Chanting "Shut it down now!" Bayview-Hunters Point residents and environmental activists streamed to the microphone in the Milton Meyers Auditorium May 4 to contest a permit renewal for the nearby plant.

Regional air quality-management officials have said the permit renewal would be automatic, but several community leaders – including a director of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District – don't see it that way.

San Francisco supervisor Chris Daly, who sits on the BAAQMD board, urged air quality-management staff to reject the permit even if they think the decision would prompt a lawsuit.

"Let them sue in court," Daly said, showing his characteristic readiness to challenge authority and relating a recent conversation with the district legal counsel supporting the authority to deny the permit.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. applied for the Title V permit, which would allow the Hunters Point plant to operate another five years under the federal Clean Air Act. Built in 1929, the power plant is among the oldest and dirtiest in California.

Several residents brought their children and inhalers to demonstrate the harmful effect air pollution has on their community. Bayview-Hunters Point claims some of the city's highest rates of asthma and cancer, illnesses many attribute to the power plant.

Greg Karras, senior scientist at Communities for a Better Environment, added another compelling reason to shut down the plant. It's not necessary to keep the power flowing, he said.

"Half of the last two years, the plant did not run at all. It was broken and couldn't be turned on if they tried, and there was no reliability problem," Karras told air quality-management staff. He noted that the plant was closed for periods of five months and seven months at a time, with no electric power shortages as a result.

Six years ago PG&E and city leaders announced an agreement to shut down the plant by 2005. With that goal almost certainly now out of reach, Karen Pierce of the Bayview-Hunters Point Community Advocates derided officials for claiming the plant has to continue operating to maintain reliability.

"You guys are not reliable," she said.

The BAAQMD expects to make a decision on the plant's five-year permit next month. It extended the permit review two weeks, until May 25, at the community's request following the May 4 meeting.

E-mail Matthew Hirsch