Hundreds pack power plant hearing; emotions run high

The first of four days of public hearings over the proposed new electric power generating plant in Carlsbad ended Monday night with an emotion-packed public input session that featured tears, anger, boos and catcalls.

Opponents of the proposed plant, which NRG Energy wants to build just behind the old Encina Power Plant it now operates, actually shuttled in hundreds of people to testify against the plans.

Opponents far outnumbered plant supporters, but there were a number in favor of the facility as well.

The overflow crowd, which had the Carlsbad Fire Marshal strictly rationing seats in the ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn, went well into the evening.

Perhaps the most emotional plea of the evening came from Stacey Quatarone, whose 16-year-old son, Chase, died almost two months ago of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

She is convinced the power plant currently operating was respnsible for her son’s death.

“Would you want this plant to be built if youjust lost your son?,”  she tearfully asked California Energy Commissioners Jim Boyd and Anthony Eggert.

Kelly Irish, who lives “just down the road” from the Encina plant, said she spent a lot of money to have a home close to the beach.

“I just don’t want it in my yard,” Irish said.

She also asked a question that NRG has so far declined to answer. “NRG supporters say that this plant will serve the region’s energy needs in the future. If that’s so, why haven’t they signed a contract with SDG&E?” she asked.

Carlsbad City Councilmembers Matt Hall and Keith Blackburn also asked the Commission to deny the new plant’s permit. Hall said a power plant in the Coastal Zone is no longer the best use for the 95 acres there. Blackburn reiterated the concern of public safety officials, primarily fire and paramedics, that there is not enough access to the site in case of emergency.

The NRG proposal had its full share of supporters as well.

A number of NRG employees were there to say their jobs and livelihoods depended on the project’s approval, and spokespeople from various Chambers of Commerce and Economic Development groups all claimed the project would be beneficial to Carlsbad’s economy.

Carlsbad school Boardmember Nicole Pappas said the need for dependable electic power is growing by leaps and bounds daily, and that the proposed plant would be a major factor in providing that power.

“We have more and newer electric demands every day — computers, cell phones — the list goes on and on. We have to have dependable power,” she said.

The opponents openly booed and hissed Pappas when, in the course of her testimony, she mentioned that her full-time job is as an employee of Southern California Edison.

Several people testified that the beaches are a major part of Carlsbad’s tourism appeal, and that a new power plant would seriously affect that tourism.

As interesting as the public input was, the real meat of the issues were handled during the daly-long sworn testimony.

It gave NRG supporters and opponents alike the chance to testify for their side, and to be cross-examined by attorneys for the other side.

Although little was said that hadn’t already been entered into the record from previous Energy Commission steps, two factors that emerged during the testimony seemed to cause a lot of controversy.

First, and perhaps largest, was the absence of any input into the process from the California Coastal Commission.

NRG and its supporters claim the Coastal Commission legally has no role to play here, but project opponents are hoping to force the Coastal Commission into the fight by bringing up again and again the fact that, in a proceeding involving SDG&E’s expansion plans in 1990, the Coastal Commission formally stated there is no longer any reason to build power plants anywhere in the Coastal Zones of California — that water-cooled plants are a thing of the past.

NRG, on the other hand, brought up a question that opponents, including the City of Carlsbad, seemed to have trouble dealing with.

NRG asked how the City could fight so hard against a permit to build a new gas-fired, air-cooled plant on the site, while at the time granting a permit for Poseidon Resources to build a plant right next door that will use millions of gallons of sea water every day in California’s first major desalination plant.

Poseidon Vice President Scott Maloni said the company has no position either way on the NRG plans and they will not affect Poseidon’s effort no matter how it comes out.

The public hearings continue all day Tuesday at the Hilton Garden Inn, 6450 Carlsbad Blvd. There will be more public input Tuesday evening, again starting at about 6 p.m.

Veteran San Diego journalist Doug Curlee is an SDNN contributing writer.

Tags: Carlsbad, Encina Power Station, NRG Energy, sdge, SDNN

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