Power plant's opponents hold meeting

A small group of about 20 concerned citizens and faculty members who call themselves the "task force" met again to discuss what action is being taken about the two power plants proposed for Hayward, on Tuesday during College Hour in the Little Theater.

Anthropology instructor Susan Sperling opened the meeting by expressing her dissatisfaction with the time frame that concerned citizens were given notice of the two power plants.

"I think prima-facie, just on the face of it, the public has not had enough time to discuss this campus…we haven't had enough chance to discuss it, because we are still discussing it," said Sperling.

According to law, a public notice must be put out to notify residents of the proposed plants. The notices went out to the Los Positas campus and to Chabot College's president.

President Robert Carlson was notified about the power plant proposal earlier this year, but has not made any formal comments about the issue and has declined to show up at the last two meetings, Sperling indicated.

After the opening comments, art instructor Diane Zuliani presented information about the two proposed power plants.

The first power plant is the Russell City Energy Center, which is sponsored by Calpine, a company based in San Jose. Calpine's power plant has been changed from a continually run power plant, to a "peaker", which means it will only be turned on twice a day during peak hours.

Russell City Energy City/Calpine will consist of two stacks 145 feet tall, with seven other smaller cooling towers. Even though it will re-circulate some emissions, 40 or more tons of pollutants will be released in the air.

The energy being produced from this site will not benefit any East Bay residents. All the energy goes to neighbors on the San Francisco Peninsula.

The Russell City Energy City received its final approval at the end of October. A time frame of 30 days is given to any formal intervener group that wants to make any legal challenges to the state Supreme Court.

Many citizens are angry about the final approval, because it was approved before most of the community was even aware.

The Eastshore Energy Center/Tiera Energy Company is the smaller of the two plants, but closest to the Chabot College campus. This plant will also be a "peaker" plant, which will run about five months every year. It is capable of emitting similar amounts of pollutants as the Russell City plant because it does not recycle its emissions.

The Chabot-Los Positas Faculty and Citizens Against Pollution (CAP) are working hard to fight the Eastshore plant. The groups are in the process of filing to become an intervener. Interveners are formal groups recognized by the state of California to challenge different cases in the Supreme Court. Any group can file a petition, and the deadline is Nov. 19.

Audrey Leppel, member of CAPollutions, urged the audience to tell people about the power plant issue and to show up to the next public meeting at the City Hall.

"There are citizens of Hayward who are concerned, and they [City Council] need to know," said Leppel.

The public is invited to the next meeting on Monday, Nov. 26 at the Hayward City Hall Chambers, and public comments will be heard from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hayward City Hall Chambers are located at 777 B St., Hayward.

The Task Force will meet again during College Hour on Tuesday, Nov 27 in the Little Theater.