City May Sue Over Generators

Delivering what could be a blow to Gov. Gray Davis’ plan to accelerate power plant projects, Huntington Beach officials filed a formal appeal with state regulators to halt the speedy reactivation of two old, gas-fired generators and promised to go to court if that doesn’t work.

A pair of boilers owned by giant AES Corp. are among a variety of power generators the California Energy Commission is trying to fast-track into service on orders from the governor.

During a meeting convened by the commission to assure locals that the project would be given proper review, city officials disclosed that they were filing an objection to the shorter, 60-day approval process.

Noting that the commission had recently rejected an application by AES for a six-month fast-tracking permit, an attorney representing the city said the new period was unreasonable, leaving them only three weeks to gather evidence before the first public hearing.

“We think that’s too short,” said Malcom C. Weiss, who serves as special counsel to the city. “We are very concerned that we don’t even know what some of the issues are yet.”

Garret Shean, the commission’s principal hearing officer, said a decision on the appeal would be issued as soon as possible. Under administrative rules, a second appeal can be filed. Should that process be exhausted, the city promised to go to court.

“If those two appeals fail, we’ll be seeking judicial intervention in whatever court has jurisdiction,” Assistant City Administrator Bill Workman said during a 10-minute break in the proceedings.

The actions, regardless of whether they succeed, are likely to tie up the approval process and hinder the governor’s plan to expedite power plant projects to meet the energy shortfall expected this summer.

The AES units, with a combined output of 450 megawatts, represent roughly 10% of the 5,000 megawatts that Davis assured Californians would be available in time for the summer peak.

AES, the state’s largest private power generator, has said that the units could be brought back on line in 90 days if construction could proceed simultaneously with the permit process. Normally, such projects cannot go forward until they win complex and time-consuming approvals from an assortment of city, county, state and federal agencies.

On Wednesday, energy commission members and local residents were invited to take a tour of the plant before spilling into a City Hall hearing room for the informational meeting.

While the regulators acknowledged meeting the new timetable would be tough, residents and city officials repeated their concerns about the environmental track record of AES, which recently paid a record $17-million fine for spewing too many pollutants from its nearby Long Beach plant. According to a recently disclosed theory by scientists at UC Irvine, the Huntington Beach plant was a possible source of pollution that closed the city’s beaches in the summer of 1999.

The scientists have suggested that the power plant--which already uses 300 million gallons of ocean water each day as coolant--might be combining with currents to pull in sewage now discharged miles offshore by the nearby Orange County Sanitation District.

Other issues include aesthetics and air quality.

“The people and environment of Huntington Beach are in jeopardy as this train races down the track,” said Mayor Pam Julien Houchen.

For its part, AES has argued that it is taking what amounts to a $140-million risk if it proceeds despite the possibility that months from now the project may not be granted state approval.

The company has also maintained that there are no plans to flout important safeguards and that it would be prepared to remedy any future problems proved to be caused by the plant.

“We believe these units can be brought back in an environmentally safe manner,” site manager Ed Blackford said. AES presented a slide show Wednesday illustrating new equipment designed to improve the units’ efficiency and bring them up to current environmental standards.

AES bought the Huntington Beach plant and two others in Los Angeles County from Southern California Edison, which was forced to sell as part of California’s 1996 deregulation law.

Edison officials have said they mothballed the two Huntington Beach units a year earlier because there was an energy glut and it did not make sense to pay the high maintenance costs.

The generators were scheduled for demolition until the energy crisis deepened in December and AES asked for permission to bring them back into service.

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Powering Up?

The California Energy Commission discussed what impact the AES power plant would have on the environment if the mothballed units were reactivated.