Adding New Power Plants Is Not the Panacea for Economic Woes
CBS 5 KPIX’s Green Beat reporter Jeffrey Schaub talked to Pacific Environment and residents of Antioch yesterday about PG&E’s plans to build two new high capacity natural gas power plants in Eastern Contra Costa County.
However, KPIX’s account yesterday is overly simplistic and implies that a power plant is the panacea to economic woes faced by residents in the far eastern corner of Contra Costa.
In reporting, KPIX inaccurately led viewers to assume the following:
1) That a power plant creates long term economic development and jobs when in actuality the construction of a power plant requires a few hundred temporary employees for a few years. And after that, only a few dozen highly specialized employees are needed for its on-going operation. This is not a long term solution for the region’s economy.
2) That this is the only option for Antioch’s development. Ironically, a day after the KPIX piece appeared, an article appeared in the East Bay Express “Activists Try to Block Green Tech in Berkeley” . It would certainly behoove Antioch to roll out the red carpet for these new industries that actually will employ people for the long term. Let Berkeley’s loss be Antioch’s gain!
These points were missing from the report:
These power plants will add tons of pollutants into Contra Costa County, which is already home to more than half of the Bay Area’s fossil fuel power plants, numerous refineries and chemical plants. All of the resulting pollution is reflected in the public health statistics of the region, with the rate of childhood asthma being the most dramatic – nearly twice the national average, according to the Contra Costa Asthma Coalition.
California already has plenty of natural gas and other sources of energy to back up renewable power when it is not operating. In fact, California has so many sources that it can comfortably decommission a number of power plants and still be secure in energy reliability. California does not lack possible sources of electricity. Even the brownouts of 2000 – 2001 were caused by energy manipulation, not by any lack of resources.
And finally, PG&E is required by state law to procure 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, beginning in 2010. This is necessary for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s the right thing to do. Just as Californians are responsible for keeping the air clean by getting their automobiles smog-checked, PG&E also must hold up its part. As of 2008, they were at about 13 percent renewable, and as a percentage of their portfolio, have slipped from where they were in 2003. As of next year, they will be breaking the law. Only by stopping the rush to build more fossil fuel plants will California be able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while creating plenty of green collar jobs in communities like Antioch.
Bay area environmental groups recently submitted a formal letter of protest to the California Public Utilities Commission regarding PG&E’s proposal to build fossil fuel power plant plans in Oakley and Antioch. You can read our protest letter here.
Tags: California, Clean Energy, Energy, environment
