If a new power plant moves in next door to the surfside smokestack and towering concrete walls of Carlsbad’s Encina Power Station, the city’s prime coastal property will become the poster child for both poor planning and fossil fuel addiction.
Mayor Bud Lewis and his City Council are trying to persuade the California Energy Commission to require the new plant’s site to be moved away from the coast. They want the property to be redeveloped to increase beach and lagoon access. The power plant’s owner, NRG West, says other locations are not feasible because of adverse environmental impacts and technical problems that would diminish the plant’s electrical transmission capacity.
The California Energy Commission will settle the argument with a final decision planned for March.
All three players in this drama appear to agree on two major points: our growing regional population needs a new, fossil-fueled power plant, and the old one cannot be shut down for another seven to 15 years.
Follow the jump for the rest of the story. . .
The use of clean, renewable energy has been mentioned only briefly in the written documents submitted to the commission. Nobody seems to be asking the question about whether tomorrow’s demand for gas-fired power plants will turn out to be as great as today’s demand for electronic typewriters.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that utility companies are worried about an unexpected drop in U.S. electricity consumption that is unrelated to the economic meltdown and could reflect a permanent shift in consumption that will require a sweeping change in their industry.
In his latest book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded”, Thomas Friedman writes: “Adding supply has always been the answer … never trying to manage demand.”
He explains that utilities have always made their money by “building stuff —- more power plants and more power lines that enabled them to sell more and more electrons to more and more customers —- because they were rewarded on the basis of those capital expenditures.” Friedman says utilities overbuild their supply capacity so that they have an adequate “reserve margin” to meet “peak load demand on the very hottest days, which might occur only once or twice a summer.”
Is that an echo I hear? On their Web site, NRG promotes the need for the new power plant by sounding the alarm: “Everyone recalls the recent hot summer days and surge in energy demands. The California Energy Commission has estimated that the State needs to build 19 new power plants to meet California’s growing energy needs.”
Friedman suggests that technology exists that would enable operators of the electrical grid to manage power delivery to “smart” home appliances. What’s lacking is the willingness to invest in a more efficient system. Until utilities are rewarded for managing demand, it appears fights over power plant pollution will amount to little more than quarreling among the NIMBYs.
Our unwillingness to just say no to fossil fuels reminds me of Woody Allen’s explanation of why he doesn’t fear death. No need to worry about the earth becoming uninhabitable as long as we think we won’t be around when it happens.
Carlsbadistan resident Richard J. Riehl is a freelance columnist. Contact him at RiehlWorld2@yahoo.com.
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