State panel may derail hayward power plant

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 7, 2007 | by Matt O'Brien

HAYWARD -- Staffers with the California Energy Commission announced this week that they don't believe the Russell City Energy Center should be built because the proposed 600-megawatt power plant could pose an "aviation safety hazard."

The report possibly derails a project that many in Hayward assumed was a done deal because the state agency originally certified it back in 2002.

The most significant concern, said commission staff in their recommendation against the project, is not so much air pollution as it is the "thermal plumes, or columns of warm air," that could interfere with aircraft approaching Hayward Executive Airport.

"People have become more knowledgeable about how thermal plumes affect the approaches to airports, especially for light aircraft, which are the majority of those that use the Hayward airport," said commission spokeswoman Susanne Garfield.

San Jose-based power plant developer Calpine Corp. has been planning to build the massive natural gas-burning plant since the late 1990s but was forced to reapply after an economic downturn and other delays put the project on the back burner.

Calpine eventually lost control of the plot of industrial land that the project was initially approved for, and faced internal financial troubles leading to a bankruptcy filing in late 2005.

But it found another plot of land about 1,300 feet away, adjacent to Hayward's wastewater treatment plant, and entered a partnership last year with General Electric that would help finance the plant's construction.

Pacific Gas & Electric also signed a 10-year power purchasing contract with Calpine last year, meaning the investor-owned utility would provide natural gas to the plant, and then procure the electricity generated by the plant to power tens of thousands of Bay Area homes and businesses.

Mike Argentine, director of project development for Calpine, said he remains optimistic that the plant will be approved by the commission and eventually built.

The commission staff's 494-pagereport released Monday afternoon is a preliminary assessment, not a final one. And the project still has to go before the full board of appointed energy commissioners.

Argentine said the commission's concerns about thermal plumes stem from a difference in opinion on the impacts those plumes might have on low-flying aircraft.

In March, a commission report said it was looking into the problems that hot, mostly invisible, high-velocity plumes had created at another power plant site in Southern California.

"Plumes are thermally buoyant during colder weather and more likely to maintain their vertical velocity at higher altitudes under calm, cool conditions," the report stated.

But a number of Hayward residents have opposed the plant based on environmental concerns. Opposition grew in the last year after another company, Texas-based Tierra Energy, proposed a second, 115- megawatt power plant in the same area, leaving neighbors wondering why Hayward was being targeted as a site for polluting energy projects.

Residents began fighting against the second plant proposal, and the Hayward City Council joined them and unanimously voted against it in March.

On Monday afternoon, the commission posted its assessment of the Russell City plant on its Web site at energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ russellcity.

Matt O'Brien can be reached at (510) 293-2473 or mattobrien@angnewspapers.com.