MINUTES
of the
POTRERO POWER PLANT CITIZENS ADVISORY TASK FORCE
Wednesday, April 11, 2001
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 421
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order by Acting Chair John Borg at 4:15 p.m.
Present: Greg Asay (Supv. Maxwell) Babette Drefke
Robert Boileau Angela Calvillo (Supv. Ammiano)
John Borg Richard Millet Joe Boss Francesca Vietor (Mayor)
Absent: Philip DeAndrade Richard Lee
Jim Firth Francesca Vietor (Mayor
Lawrence Klein Claude Wilson
2. REPORT OF THE CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
Deputy City Attorney Joe Como responded to the question posed by the Task Force regarding what federal, state, regional and local approvals are required for the siting of Potrero power plant Unit 7. The basic overarching principle is that the CEC has exclusive jurisdiction over power plants of 50 megawatts or greater for certification and that preempts local, regional and state law that would otherwise apply. However, the CEC is required to make findings as to whether approving a power plant in any other case would violate a local, state or federal law. As part of those findings, the CEC has to
Potrero Power Plant
Minutes
April 11, 2001
make every effort to comply with those laws unless certifying the project is so necessary that is required for public convenience or necessity and there is no other way for achieving those same things.
Thus, CEC has preemption rights over local permits and ordinances. CEC will look for conditions and mitigations that will require compliance with local laws. In terms of local property rights, CEC does not have preemption authority. That includes the right to sell or lease land. To that extent, there is an issue of the Port having jurisdiction over the piece of Port property that is needed for the plant to expand. The issue of whether that is a lease or other property right has not yet been decided.
3. REPORT OF THE LEGISLATIVE ANALYST
Mr. Borg asked the analyst, Elaine Forbes to research whether there are any plants with a peak capacity near 900 megawatts, either licensed or being considered for operation in an urban residential location similar to San Francisco.
Ms. Ames requested that Ms. Forbes produce a timeline for the task force with deadlines.
4. REPORTS FROM TASK FORCE MEMBERS
Mr. Asay announced that Supervisor Maxwell has filed three Letters of Inquiry with the Board regarding public power: 1) the first inquiry is directed at the Airport asking what land is available for the City to build its own power plant on airport land, and are there current plans to build a 500 megawatt power plant at the airport? 2) the second inquiry is to the PUC to inquire about the possibility and cost of the City of building its own efficient, state-of-the-art power plant; 3) third inquiry to the PUC regarding what it would take to run transmission lines under the Bay.
5. TASK FORCE REPORT TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
The Task Force discussed having a special meeting to vote on a position statement to put forth at Supervisor Maxwell’s hearing on the Potrero power plant on April 24th. The group agreed to meet on Monday, April 23rd at 9:00 a.m. It was suggested that a few members meet before the meeting to craft a statement. Ms. Vietor agreed to craft a general statement and present it to the Task Force for a vote.
6. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned.
