Power plant retrofit option rejected
By: Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer
October 28, 2008
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| The Land Use Committee and Economic Development Committee on Monday recommended against a proposal to retrofit the Mirant Power Plant rather than shut it down. Mayor Gavin Newsom supports the retrofit option. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The question of whether to shutter or retrofit the Mirant Power Plant located at the foot of Potrero Hill could be settled next week.
The proposal to retrofit the plant was issued in May by Mayor Gavin Newsom, and it was a sudden reversal from his previous support of entirely shutting the plant down and replacing it with a new, city-owned natural-gas facility on the same site.
Newsom had billed the retrofit as a clean, cheap and temporary solution that would leave the plant in the hands of its private owners until San Francisco had enough renewable energy or other options and could shut it down.
But during the Land Use and Economic Development Committee meeting Monday, members Supervisor Sophie Maxwell — whose district includes the plant and the neighborhood around it — and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin handed the decision about the plant to the full board with a recommendation not to adopt the retrofit. Committee member Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval did not attend the meeting.
The retrofit would be “dirtier” and only nominally cheaper than building a new natural-gas plant, Maxwell said. Also, no such retrofit has ever been successfully completed, she said.
Maxwell and Peskin have backed the plan to entirely remove the plant and replace it with a natural-gas facility as a bridge until The City has a more environmentally friendly option.
Several people spoke at Monday’s hearing, most urging the committee to kill the retrofit proposal.
David Siegel, resident of the Dog Patch neighborhood just blocks away from the plant, said retrofitting rather than closing it should not be considered.
“We’ve been working for years to get this monstrosity shut down,” he said. The concept of retrofitting the plant “just turns my stomach,” he added.
The Board of Supervisors should take up the issue at its Nov. 4 meeting.
