EPA revokes permit for Calpine plant

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 30, 2008 | by Eric Kurhi

Poor public outreach regarding Calpine's proposed Russell City Energy Center in Hayward caused a procedural short circuit on Tuesday when a federal agency ruled that Calpine must revisit the planning process for the power plant to make sure all concerned parties are included.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency revoked a necessary pollution-related permit for the facility, saying the Bay Area Air Quality Management District did not go to adequate lengths to let the public in on the process.

"The (air district) fell conspicuously short of its general outreach obligations," stated the ruling. One such obligation is compiling a list of parties interested in the project and keeping them abreast of developments.

Those parties include the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Chabot College, both of which joined Hayward resident Rob Simpson -- who filed the appeal with the EPA -- in stating they felt blindsided by the project's approval last September.

They asked that the case be reopened but were denied in November.

"They need to fix that part of the system," Simpson said. "The system is broken if (Calpine) can go and get licensed without going through the proper public input."

Greg Wheatland, attorney for San Jose-based Calpine, called it a "procedural defect."

"The problem was noticing public hearings," he said. "It was defects in the permitting process but not in the permit itself."

While Simpson says properly studying pollution models would take a year of monitoring, Wheatland said Calpine hopes to be back on track to begin construction in as little as five months.

"If the permit decision is favorable, which we expect it will be, we're anxious to go forward," he said.

Calpine was given a two-year construction extension by the California Energy Commission at its business meeting Wednesday morning in Sacramento. The old license was due to expire in September, but according to Wheatland, the project has been delayed by "litigation popping up unexpectedly," referring to Simpson's appeal.

Simpson said that in addition to air pollution issues, other aspects of the project were never adequately addressed, such as the effect that a proposed 600-megawatt gas turbine facility near the shoreline would have on endangered species in neighboring marshlands.

While that and other issues unrelated to air quality are not affected by the particular permit revoked by the ruling, the EPA suggested other agencies may get involved.

"In order to promote administrative efficiency and prevent unnecessary expense of legal resources, the board considers it advisable to alert potential parties of several issues raised," it stated.

Those include challenges to the plant's conformity with the Endangered Species, Clean Water, Migratory Bird Treaty and Coastal Zone Management acts.

More than a dozen people spoke at Wednesday morning's meeting, but commissioners said much of their testimony was irrelevant to the topic at hand: the two-year construction extension.

"They want to open the siting case and go back to issues that were already debated during licensing," said Energy Commissioner James Boyd. "I want to be deferential to the public and hear everyone out, but I ask for caution. The time for appealing the case has long since lapsed."

Simpson maintained that if one aspect of Russell City is invalid, the whole project is put into question.

"The process is supposed to be resting on approval of that air permit," he said. "They're not supposed to build these things without an air permit, and they no longer have one."

But Kevin Bell, counsel for the commission, said that's not accurate.

"If they don't get permitted, the license the CEC granted will expire and it won't get built," he said. "If they do get it, they should be allowed to go ahead with construction."

Eric Kurhi covers Hayward. Reach him at ekurhi@bayareanewsgroup.com or 510-293-2473.