'We're going backwards,' Hayward council candidate claims

By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER

Article Created: 03/07/2008 02:39:17 AM PST

HAYWARD — Rob Simpson tried and failed Thursday to get Bay Area air quality regulators to reconsider the authority they granted an energy company last year to construct a 600-megawatt power plant on the Hayward shoreline.

The five-member hearing board of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District dismissed Simpson's appeal, saying the matter was not up to them but instead under the jurisdiction of the California Energy Commission.

So now, Simpson, a Hayward real estate broker, is taking his case to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In the meantime, he aims to get himself elected to the Hay-ward City Council in June, challenging incumbents whom he says carelessly opened the city's doors to a polluting "gray industrial economy."

"We're going backwards," said Simpson, who professes to have logged more than 400 volunteer hours researching and fighting two proposed Hayward power plants. "One reason (I'm running) is to stop these power plants from coming into town. That's the main reason."

While the authority to permit large plant construction ultimately rests with state energy commissioners, Simpson criticizes top city leaders for overlooking key issues and giving San Jose-based Calpine Corp. a plot of city land on which to build its planned, massive natural gas-fired plant.

His candidacy could contribute to partially turning the local election — which so far involves three incumbents and seven

open seats — into a referendum on the two power plant proposals that have garnered wide public condemnation.

The Calpine plant proposal earned unanimous approval from the City Council several years ago. As mitigation for the pollution the plant would cause, the San Jose company has promised to contribute $10 million to the Hayward Library system if the plant is built. The California Energy Commission said it took local government recommendations into account when it approved the plant late last year.

"It's one thing to get into a deal, but it's another thing to close it. The city still owns the land," Simpson said Thursday. "They haven't had hearings, they haven't had an examination of the facts. I don't think we should just be burying our head in the sand."

Simpson traveled to San Francisco on Thursday to call the air district hearing board's attention to what he thinks is the district's faulty reliance on pollution-trading credits to reduce Bay Area pollution.

"They claimed they didn't have jurisdiction over their own permit," Simpson said.

Although the district did grant authority to construct the Calpine plant last year, the hearing board dismissed Simpson's appeal because the California Energy Commission is still the lead agency for reviewing and permitting power plants, said Karen Schkolnick, a spokeswoman for the district.

"Because it's a larger plant, it falls under the jurisdiction of the CEC," Schkolnick said. "It wasn't that they denied it on the merits of the appeal."

Simpson said the air district could have forced Calpine to use better technology that gets engines starting faster and pollutes less, but instead it encouraged the company to buy banked emission reduction credits, a measure that earns the air district more money but hurts Hayward.

"We shouldn't be getting old technology," Simpson said. "If we're going to be getting all these plants, which I don't think we need, they should at least be a modern facility."

Simpson points to the air district's announcement last month that it plans to charge power plants, refineries and other big Bay Area polluters a "global warming fee" that would raise an estimated

$1.1 million a year for the air district.

"The way it's licensed, they'll collect an extra $50,000 a year because this thing pollutes more," Simpson said.

The fee would cost polluting Bay Area businesses 4.2 cents for every metric ton of carbon dioxide produced each year.

After refineries, the biggest greenhouse polluters in the Bay Area tend to be power plants and landfills, according to air district figures. Schkolnick said the district has not calculated how much Calpine's proposed combined-cycle Hayward plant, to be known as the Russell City Energy Center, would generate in pollution fees.

But in comparison, the Calpine-owned Los Medanos Energy Center, a 500-megawatt combined-cycle plant in Pittsburg, produces about 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year and would generate about $58,337 to the air district in fees, according to air district records.

The Los Medanos plant was completed at the beginning of the decade and is the sixth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the Bay Area, according to the records.

Matt O'Brien can be reached at 510-293-2473 or mattobrien@bayareanewsgroup.com .

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8487366?source=most_emailed

Nine council hopefuls mull local issues

Seven candidates vying for four-year seats; two running for two-year seat

By Rachel Cohen, STAFF WRITER

Article Created: 03/16/2008 02:37:41 AM PDT

HAYWARD — Nine candidates vying for five City Council seats spoke their minds Friday night in the campaign's first debate, sponsored by the Hayward Demos Democratic club.

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 80 people attended the event at Westminster Hills Presbyterian Church on Patrick Avenue.

The top issues to emerge included restoring the city budget to a surplus, reducing crime, attracting new businesses and stopping proposed power plant projects from moving forward.

Each candidate offered different suggestions for meeting the goals.

Hoping to win one of four, four-year terms are incumbents Barbara Halliday, Olden Henson and Bill Quirk, and challengers Linda Bennett, Marvin Peixoto, Rob Simpson and Francisco Zermeno. Vying for a single, two-year seat are candidates Steve Bristow and Anna May.

Hayward Demos President Tom Kersten moderated the event, allowing each candidate threeminutes to answer most questions.

Quirk said the two main ways to attract more businesses to Hayward are to build better neighborhoods and schools. He said the city would be surveying residents to find out what mattered most to them, and how problems could be addressed — for example, through traffic-calming measures or Hayward police gang task force involvement.

May, director of the Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association and former owner of the Rickshaw Express restaurant, encouraged residents to support Hayward businesses.

Zermeno, founder and president of the Latino Business Roundtable, said the city needs to streamline its business practices and offer early retirement incentives.

Bristow, a 36-year 9-1-1 dispatcher, added that the city needs to do more to make businesses feel welcome, such as offer tours of the town when prospective companies' officials visit.

Peixoto, a budget analyst and Hayward Planning Commission chairman, said the city needs to more proactively prevent too much of its money from funding state programs.

Regarding crime, Bristow said the police department needs to restore the practice of assigning specific police officers to specific neighborhoods.

Henson said the city needs to partner with religious groups for tutoring services.

Bennett, a library commissioner, said police also need to work more closely with schools.

"We need to work together to engage in civil discourse," Halliday added.

On city-improvement projects, Peixoto expressed doubt that a proposed one-way loop through downtown would create a pedestrian-friendly environment.

"Everything we do has to be connected to that vision," he added.

Simpson, a member of the Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force and the sustainability committee, was emphatic about stopping power plants from being built on Hayward's shoreline. He showed posters of the plumes of smoke, and displayed plastic bags containing 1.2 pounds of particulate matter that he said represented what a proposed plant would produce per resident.

Questions from the audience included whether the nominees supported same-sex marriage.

Planning Commissioner Al Mendall asked how receptive the nominees would be to suggestions made from the sustainability committee formed in the past year.

Library planning commissioner Kelly Greene, a Hayward Demo, agreed that the city needs more neighborhood investment from residents. She also supported more library funding, which she said now accounts for

4 percent of the city's budget.

"A new library becomes a hub for the neighborhood," she said.

After the debate, the 60-some Hayward Demos members in attendance voted for their top candidates to endorse. By a simple majority, their favorites were Bristow, Halliday, Henson and Quirk.

Members of GLOBE, or Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees, endorsed Bennett, Bristow, Halliday, Quirk and Zermeno.

The next debate is scheduled for the end of April.

With the final decision regarding two power plants coming in May, many citizens are still unaware

Jacob Leyba

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Media Credit: William Eisner Rob Simpson speaks on the issues surrounding the proposed power plants to be built near CHabot during Tuesday's Task Force meeting in Room 1232.

Though April 1st is the day of fools and jokes, staff and students found no laughing matter over their struggle against the Eastshore power plant.

A meeting was held on the Chabot campus to discuss recent information regarding the ongoing battle over the power plants in Hayward.

The discussion was led by Susan Sperling, an instructor of anthropology at Chabot, and Rob Simpson, a real estate broker dedicated to the cause of keeping Hayward clean and green.

A point that was constantly brought up was about the issue of awareness.

Sperling said, "A good start is to get our colleges more focused on these issues.

"Many of the citizens are unaware of what exactly is going on."

Calpine's Hayward shoreline facility was approved by the City Council without most of the public's knowledge.

Regarding the power plant Simpson said, "I don't call it Russell City because the name is deceptive. It is in the city of Hayward."

With the ok of Eastshore, it is estimated that 46 tons of particulate matter will be released into the air surrounding Hayward every year.

This was approved by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District which has been working on passing a carbon-tax.

The district will collect more tax funds from the creation of the two plants.

California Assembly woman Mary Hayashi has started work on designing a bill that will give cities the ability to disapprove of the building a power plant if one already exists in that city.

This bill will not arrive in time to prevent the construction of Eastshore, however.

With the final say approaching in early May, the powers at hand are doing all they can.

Both Simpson and Sperling are urging citizens of Hayward and the Bay Area to take a stand.

Sperling has suggested "teaching for students and faculty to learn of these issues."