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No to Vallejo Terminal and Powerplant-Power play in Vallejo

by Vallejoans for Community Planned Renewal (VCPR [at] yahoogroups.com)
Two months ago -- out of the blue one Saturday morning -- Vallejoans were informed by their "excited" Mayor Tony Intintoli that he had been negotiating in secret with Bechtel and Shell for a year and that the two firms would build a huge complex at the southern end of Mare Island consisting of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regassification facility and 1,500 megawatt power plant.
Power play in Vallejo
Vicki Gray
Thursday, July 18, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/07/18/ED75931.DTL
Two months ago -- out of the blue one Saturday morning -- Vallejoans were informed by their "excited" Mayor Tony Intintoli that he had been negotiating in secret with Bechtel and Shell for a year and that the two firms would build a huge complex at the southern end of Mare Island consisting of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regassification facility and 1,500 megawatt power plant.
The following Tuesday, May 7, the Vallejo City Council rubber-stamped a six- month feasibility study -- to be conducted by Bechtel and Shell -- before the public could react.
Except for a small but enterprising online news service, http://www.vallejonews.com, there has been little reporting about the potential problems of this ill- conceived and dangerous project. The Vallejo Times-Herald has seemed like a cheerleader, reporting mostly favorable "news" dished out by Bechtel, Shell and City Hall. For its part, The Chronicle has offered but a single anodyne editorial ("Power plant by the bay," May 9), allowing Intintoli to get away with his inaccurate claim that "The initial reaction from the community has been very positive." It's time for the media to start reporting the facts about a development that will have profoundly negative consequences for the entire Bay Area.
This would be the first LNG facility on the West Coast of North America. It would be located not at some isolated, deep-water coastal location, but rather at the edge of San Pablo Bay, astride the entrance to a major inland shipping route, the Carquinez Strait, and cheek-by-jowl with a major population center of 116,000 people and the environmentally sensitive San Pablo Wetlands Wildlife Refuge. Three schools, the Vallejo City Hall, and nearly all of central and southern Vallejo would lie within two miles.
Why is location so sensitive? Because LNG is such a highly unstable, flammable and explosive substance. And it is most unstable during the unloading and regassification process that would take place on Mare Island. As Norwegian research has demonstrated, an accidental spill of LNG onto water would cause an explosion that would spread vapor clouds and put structures and people at great risk.
An even greater danger is that of nearly unquenchable fire. As a representative of Westcoast Gas (sponsors of a similar project in British Columbia that was rejected) has admitted, "Spilled LNG could ignite and you'd have a large fire that would take three to four days to burn out."
With such safety considerations in mind, the U.S. Coast Guard requires a moving safety zone around LNG tankers in U.S. waters. These ships -- the size of three football fields -- would pass under the Golden Gate and Richmond-San Rafael bridges on their way to Mare Island where, they would lie at anchor a scant 6,000 feet from the Carquinez Bridge.
Allow me, however, as a proud Vallejoan, to mention two mundane concerns a bit closer to home:
-- First, by its bulk and ugliness, such a complex would doom the renewal of the Vallejo waterfront and downtown as well as the city's justifiable pretensions -- based on its enviable position at the mouth of the Napa River and its excellent ferry service to San Francisco -- as the "Gateway to the Wine Country."
-- Second, as one of many Vallejoans with asthma (Solano County has the worst rate of respiratory diseases in the entire Bay Area), I must point out that this complex will, as a matter of course, produce noxious smog-producing emissions that, given the prevailing winds, will waft over the entire city, including my backyard.
Needless to say, I don't want this in my backyard. To that end, I and dozens of others from Vallejoans for Community Planned Renewal want to assert that the initial reaction to the plant, Intintoli's views aside, has been negative. (In a recent Internet poll by vallejonews.com of more than 1,700 residents, the LNG complex was opposed by a 2-to-1 margin.) We are also demanding transparency from our elected officials in their further consideration of this issue.
Vallejoans and their neighbors from around a bay already polluted by refineries in Richmond, Rodeo, Martinez and Benicia can say with justification that we have already given more than our fair share to satisfy the energy needs of California.
Indeed, I am convinced that, in light of the highly successful conservation efforts by Californians and the recent construction of large new power plants in Pittsburg and Moss Landing, we don't need additional power generation facilities in the state. If such a need arises, we must demand that Bechtel and Shell provide convincing proof of the appropriateness, scope and location of their proposed solution.
We have been through too much to take power companies at their word.

Proposed plant
Bechtel Corp. and Shell are continuing a six-month feasibility study for what would become the first liquefied natural gas-power generation facility on the West Coast.
COST: $1.5 billion
SIZE: Up to 1,500 megawatts, or enough electricity to serve a city of 1.5 million. JOBS: The plant would create 1,000 construction jobs, and require 100 permanent workers.
LOCATION: 100 acres on the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard (closed 1996) in Vallejo. The parties involved are still working with the Navy on site accessibility.
COMPLETION: If all goes smoothly through the approval and construction project, the plant could be operating by late 2007.
Vicki Gray is communications coordinator of Vallejoans for Community Planned Renewal.
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Mark
Wed, Dec 18, 2002 2:05PM
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Thu, Jul 18, 2002 11:01AM
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