L.A. region's power plants: Now what?

Barry Wallerstein, SoCal's air pollution czar (otherwise known as executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District), said that the district is unlikely to appeal a Superior Court judge's decision to delay a host of gas-fired power plants.

So will the district comply with the judge's order to deliver an extensive environmental impact review of the health effects of emitting thousands of tons of new cancer-causing soot into the atmosphere? Wallerstein said the district, which is responsible for the air breathed by 16 million Californians, will figure that out in coming days. "It will be a question of whether we proceed with a new rule, or whether we throw up our hands and say someone else should figure this out because it is beyond our control."

Wallerstein, recalling the electricity crisis, asked, "Should we wait until we have brownouts and blackouts to build new power plants?"

Meanwhile, environmentalists, who advocate a stronger push for energy conservation and renewable power, said they would file a new lawsuit in coming weeks, this one in federal court, to nullify what they call "bogus" pollution credits issued by the air district to allow the gas plants to be built.

See full story.

-- Margot Roosevelt

Photo: Long Beach-area power plant. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[sheila]

hey wallerstein, ever heard of solar panels? check out germany, japan, italy, spain, france, switzerland and over 30 countries which already offer generous feed in tariffs for residents to retrofit with solar and MAKE MONEY for clean power produced at PEAKER HOURS.

is this guy really the best we can do? time to clean house in sacramento and get a few people with brains and vision in there...

[George]

Hi Sheila,
It is good to read a comment from the USA that believes in renewables, and as you point out many EU countries are way way ahead of the USA. I am proud to say that I live in Sweden. We are a small country, population wise, but we have big ideas about energy. We started with our CHP plants in the 50s, and every large city has them providing heat and electricity to the communities, even the small villages have mini plants providing heat, ie hot water to the community. The big oil scare in the 70s redoubled our efforts. NO household waste, trash, is landfilled, all is incinerated in the large CHP plants. We DO have nuclear and hydro for our electricity, and thats it, no fossil fuels are use here, and we have even set a date for complete stop for fossil fuels for everything, ie cars, lorries etc, and that date is 2020.

[David Garry]

Right on Sheila! This is the 21st century and we need to make a change in our energy policy. This is very much in our control and there is a better way, rooftop solar.
Dave