State Supports City Power Plant Project: Riverside Public Utilities expects to have the first turbine operating next October
By Doug Haberman
Published December 16, 2004
Reprinted with permission from The Press-Enterprise

The California Energy Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of a 96-megawatt power plant that Riverside Public Utilities intends to build.

The commission granted a special exemption for plants designed to produce fewer than 100 megawatts. The decision amounts to a fast-tracking of the $75 million project because the utility need not produce an environmental impact report.

"We feel very successful," Steve Badgett, the utility's assistant director for energy delivery, said after returning from the commission meeting in Sacramento.

"It reinforces our belief that the process does work," he said.

The utility now must obtain approvals from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the city Planning Commission, he said.

The project was caught in a fight pitting labor unions against nonunion contractors.

The City Council in July awarded a $25 million construction contract to a company that does not use union labor.

California Unions for Reliable Energy then began fighting the fast-track approval on environmental grounds. It dropped its opposition last week when it realized the commission did not agree with its arguments about air pollution and other effects.

CURE denied it was trying to force the city to reconsider the construction contract but nonunion contractors accused the group of a form of blackmail.

At CURE's request, the utility agreed to restrict public access to the project site, next to the city's wastewater treatment plant, during the weeks of heaviest earthmoving activity. The measure is meant to prevent people from breathing small dust particles that can cause lung damage over time.

The proposed natural-gas-fired plant is designed to generate power to avoid summer blackouts.

Utilities officials said they expect to have the first of two turbines operating in October 2005 and the second in November 2005.