Building Trades News

$450 Million, 914-Megawatt Plant Would be So Cal’s Most Efficient

By Roy San Filippo
Staff Writer

Craft unions are fighting for the construction of a new 13.7-acre, $450 million power plant in the City of Vernon. If approved the 914-megawatt plant could begin operating at the corner of Fruitland and Boyle avenues by the summer of 2009. The LA/OC Building Trades Council is negotiating with the City for a Project Labor Agreement that includes the maintenance work for the life of the plant. The project would create 266 jobs for two years for the crafts who will be building the facility. Approximately $85 million has been estimated for labor costs to construct the power plant. Representatives from UA 250, IBEW 11, Ironworkers 433, and Laborers 300 have been fixtures at local hearings.

Air quality is the most contentious issue in the proposed plant, with some community activists and neighboring communities concerned that emissions from the new power plant will lower air quality in the region. Proponents, however, note that the new plant will be one of the most efficient plants in the state and that it will replace power produced from higher emitting facilities.

"What the environmental activists need to understand is that the more modern and efficient power plants that we build, the less we need to rely on older, more polluting plants," said Terry Martin, Political Director for United Association Local 250. "These new plants will put economic pressure on older facilities to either modernize their equipment or replace it with more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies."

Representatives from the City of Vernon also warned that critics of the power plant are jeopardizing the opportunity for cities in southeast Los Angeles County to secure new clean-air projects.

In attempt to develop a compromise, South Coast Air Quality Management District board, in an 8-3 vote in early August, gave power plant developers the opportunity to buy credits to offset the pollution that would be released by the new facilities. The credits were originally intended for schools, hospitals and other emergency agencies.

The need to purchase the credits might delay or kill some of the 11 proposed power plant projects impacted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District decision. Mike Carroll, an attorney representing half of the proposed power plants — including the facility in Vernon — said the conditions placed on credits by the board could make it too costly to build some of the plants.

"I have a lot of ambivalence," he said. "We are happy the board recognizes the need for additional power generation…. However, they put so many restrictions on us … it could potentially kill the project."

Vernon’s small army of lobbyists, lawyers and consultants also has been submitting stacks of letters and petitions from residents and companies who favor the project. But some of the elected officials remain unconvinced.

Supervisor Gloria Molina and an array of environmental groups say the communities that surround Vernon already cope with a disproportionate share of pollution, from the nearby rail yards to the diesel trucks that travel each day on the 710 Freeway.

The power plants proponents however, note that the project includes millions of dollars in mitigation fees.

"The opponents are saying no to $50 million in mitigation fees," said Hilda Delgado, a consultant for the city. Adam Kavic, Business Representative for UA 250, noted that those mitigation fees could be used to purchase low-emission busses and other measurers that could reduce pollution in the area and improve air quality. Backers of the Vernon plant counter that the project would be cleaner than the vast majority of existing power generating facilities. "For every megawatt of energy generated by the new Vernon plant, that is one megawatt not being generating by an older, less environmentally friendly power plant," said Kavic.

And they argue that the facility would help the region prevent the rolling brownouts and blackouts that have plagued Southern California over the last decade.

"If we don’t build this plant, I believe there are going to be times when we have to go into emergency mode," said Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, an AQMD board member who supports new regulations that would allow more power plants to be built.