SAN DIEGO COALITION CALLS ON CITY COUNCIL TO SAY “NO” TO POWER PLANT NEAR MISSION TRAILS PARK
September 21, 2012 (San Diego)-A coalition of local community groups announces that it will fill the San Diego City Council chambers on Monday, September 24 at 2 p.m.
They will call on the City Council to uphold a recent Planning Commission decision to deny a community plan amendment request that would have paved the way for a 100 megawatt gas-fired power plant on open space designated land adjacent to Mission Trails Regional Park.
The meeting will be held in the San Diego City Council Chambers, 202 C Street, 12th Floor, San Diego, CA. Over 100 San Diegans plan to be in the Council chambers wearing colorful t-shirts, holding signs, and giving testimony against the project.
The project developer, Congentrix, has contended that the project is needed to meet peak power needs and as backup for times when the "wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine" as large-scale desert wind and solar projects come on line down the road. Cogentrix recently submitted revised plans to decrease visual impacts, though many concerns remain.
According to a press release sent by opponents, Coalition speakers will call on the council to:
- Do right by San Diegans rather than the bottom line of SDG&E and Cogentrix.
- Provide evidence that our region has no need for additional fossil fuel power plants to meet peak demand, and that our long term energy needs will be met through expansion of local solar power and energy efficiency, which are also required to meet renewable and greenhouse gas emissions targets.
- Reaffirm its commitment to protecting precious designated open space. Converting open space to industrial use is unacceptable, especially when the proposed power plant would significantly degrade the adjacent Mission Trails Regional Park which is unrivaled in our region for its beauty, recreational use, wildlife and plants, and cultural history.
- Reiterate the Planning Commission’s findings which show that the Cogentrix request fails to meet the City’s own criteria for initiating a community plan amendment.
The coalition includes: Sierra Club San Diego Chapter, Save Mission Trails, Environmental Health Coalition, Preserve Wild Santee, League of Women Voters of San Diego, San Diego Audubon Society, and SanDiego350.org. Sierra Club provided a fact sheet of reasons why it believes the plant is not needed.