The people speak: ‘Halt polluting power plant project!’

People at the rally Monday said they’re fed up and furious about pollution that makes parents too sick to work and keeps children up all night with asthma and nosebleeds. They’re telling the Board of Supervisors that the last thing they need is another fossil fuel burning power plant in or near their neighborhood. All San Franciscans should join them in demanding that all the city’s power come from clean green sources like solar and wind.

The group rallied in front of City Hall before the Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee met and voted on a contract to build and operate three natural gas turbines – sometimes referred to as peaker plants – in Bayview Hunters Point, the most environmentally impacted neighborhood in the city, and a fourth natural gas turbine at the San Francisco Airport.

The committee is set to also take up legislation by Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier that would require environmental and economic studies of the plant proposal and would seek clean energy alternatives. Groups at the rally called upon the committee to support Alioto-Pier’s legislation and vote down the contract.

Advocates and elected officials called upon the mayor and the Board of Supervisors to create a new energy reliability plan that takes into account recent increases in solar power, conservation and transmission capacity and which doesn’t contribute to global warming and air pollution.

Green-Collar Jobs Campaigns Director Ian Kim of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights said, “Building fossil fuel power plants in Southeast San Francisco limits the city’s ability to invest in renewable energy and efficiency strategies that would increase green-collar job opportunities for San Francisco.”

Among the crowd outside City Hall protesting more polluting power plants Monday were, at the left, community leaders Espanola Jackson and Daniel, father of five small children.

“The current strategy is still excessively fossil fuel driven. Why can’t that be supplemented by renewables?” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi in recent hearings. “I’m still not sold on the idea that we need the peakers at all.”

State Sen. Carole Migden authored the 2002 Community Choice energy legislation that allows California cities to purchase renewable energy and build their own renewable power facilities. “The time for fossil fuel is over. The people want 100 percent clean energy now and shutting down the Mirant plant for another fossil fuel burning plant just makes no sense. This neighborhood has suffered under the toxic air of the current plant. San Francisco needs to stand together and build something that is renewable and clean for the families of the Bayview and Potrero Hill.”

John Rizzo of the Sierra Club said, “At a time when the governor is adding resources to fight global warming, San Francisco is putting up $250 million to contribute to global warming.”

“This power plant project would not even be on the table if it had been proposed for any other community in the city,” said Marie Harrison of Greenaction. “Asthma and cancer rates in Bayview Hunters Point are some of the highest in the nation. We will not stand for any more of this.”

Eric Brooks with San Francisco Green Party added: “The city claims this will benefit the Bayview Hunters Point community. A plant that must pay for itself by burning fossil fuel for 18 years is not a benefit to any community.”

Endorsing organizations include the Ella Baker Center For Human Rights, Sierra Club, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, SPUR (San Francisco Planning And Urban Research Association), Global Exchange, Green For All, Environmental Defense, San Francisco Green Party, San Francisco Bay View newspaper, Huntersview Mothers Committee for Health and Environmental Justice, Women’s Energy Matters, Latino Issues Forum, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, Greenwood Earth Alliance, Environmental Justice Air Quality Coalition, Defend Bayview Hunters Point, Idriss Stelley Foundation, San Francisco Green Party Sustainability Working Group, Our City and the Brightline Defense Project.

Tag it:

?