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Politics Blog

Chevron spinning out

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Yuck. Ecuadorian oil pit. All cleaned up, you say? Photo courtesy of Amazon Watch

As if publicly disputing the credibility of the Goldman Prize weren’t enough, Chevron has gone into serious corporate spin cycle, taking out a full page ad in today’s Chron and penning a guest editorial claiming they’re not to blame for 18 billion gallons of toxic waste dumped in unlined pits in the Amazon rainforest. The repeated cry of Charles A. James, Chevron’s vp and general counsel: It’s not us, it’s the government. Chevron, the parent company of Texaco, which began pumping Ecuadorian oil back in 1964, says noone cared about the environment back then, they’ve cleaned up their mess anyway, and anything left over is the fault of Ecuador’s national oil company, PetroEcuador.

Lawyer Pablo Fajardo and activist Luis Yanza, two natives of Lago Agrio, Ecuador – a small village in the heart of the spoils — were just awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, what our congresswoman Nancy Pelosi called “on par with the Nobel Peace Prize.” Fajardo put himself through law school to take the lead in a suit against Chevron, claiming the company’s responsible for destroying soil, water, and natural resources. Lago Agrians suffer significantly elevated incidences of cancer, disease, and death.

Chevron, which ignored Fajardo at last year’s board meeting, now has Sam Singer handling spin. Singer’s other recent clients: the SF Zoo, post-tiger attack, and Don Fisher’s Presidio art museum. They also have William Haynes on the case. Why does that name sound so familiar? Yes, a la Kevin Ryan, we have another Bush Administration fall guy washing ashore in the Bay Area.

Reading through Chevron’s website on the lawsuit and taking in the pretty green pictures, it seems like there isn’t a thing wrong with this Amazonian rainforest. Everything’s been cleaned up, and if the indigenous people who live there are getting sick, it’s because they shit where they eat.

But MoFilms, an Oakland-based documentary company, shot footage of the region that shows someone has been wrecking environmental hell down there. Their film, Justicia Now, is screening this Thursday at the Roxie, 8 pm, 3117 16th St. San Francisco. The filmmakers will be on hand to answer questions about the issue and the movie, which they also distribute for free on their website.

NY Times gets all anguished over opinions

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I thought this debate was pretty much over, but the Public Editor at the NY Times is all agitated now about the “line between analysis and opinion” in newspapers. Gee: A business or legal reporter with many years experience in the field dares to give an informed opinon about what’s really going on. That seems like elemental journalism to me.

I think Clark Hoyt missed the larger, and more interesting debate, which is particularly relevant at a time when blogs are becoming a major source of information for people.

It’s not about opinion or analysis; it’s about reporting.

Some opinion writers (Maureeen Dowd comes to mind at the Times) never ever seem to pick up the phone and call anyone; they just read what others have written and opine. That’s fine, I suppose, but I’ve always thought the best columnists were the ones who actually do some legwork, who get out and report on events and then tell us what they think. At the Times, Bob Herbert does that. William Safire, who was often wrong, did it, too — I remember years ago reading a piece he’d written about NY Governor Mario Cuomo and Saddam Hussein; instead of whining about the guv, he picked up a telephone and called him. Thanks to the Times index, I ran the 1992 column down. Check it out; here’s a conservative Times columnist and a liberal New York governor arguing about how to handle what become the first Gulf War. Far more interesting reading than a lot of the tumbsucking that goes on in op-ed columns these days.

So if the business and legal reporters, who are actually interviewing sources and calling people and running down stories want to add their opinions, the world is better for it.

The bloggers who actually make phone calls, interview people, call someone before they comment about him or her are still rare. But that will change as this new form of journalism emerges.

I’ve found that my biased, slated, non-objective reporting is always better if I call the other side and argue for a while. Makes me smarter. Makes the story better. Demanding that your columnists call the subjects of their vitriole before they let loose seems to me a lot more important than worrying about who’s sneaking an opinion into a story.

Mirkarimi: Don’t spray on me

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By David Carini

Opponents of the state’s plan to spray pesticides against the light brown apple moth gathered at City Hall today to support legislation introduced by Supervisor Mirkarimi. Mirkarimi’s bill urges the city attorney to find a legal method to stop the aerial spraying before it commences over San Francisco airspace on August 1.

“The spraying shouldn’t present more harm than good. Some of the chemicals used are in the list of known substances to cause cancer in California,” Mirkarimi said at the press conference.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s pesticide program is currently underway throughout the state. Monterey and Santa Cruz counties were sprayed in November of last year. “Lots of my neighbors are complaining about skin rashes and coughs,” Santa Cruz resident Paulina Borsook told the crowd.

In spite of 643 reported cases of illness related to the Monterey Peninsula sprayings last fall, the state has yet to disclose the exact chemical compound of the pesticide.

Bobby Bogan, spokesman for Seniors Organizing Seniors, pointed out that over 60 percent of the elderly in the city have respiratory problems, but seniors weren’t his only concern. “We don’t grow apples in San Francisco, we grow children,” he said.

The Board of Supervisors will vote on the resolution tomorrow, April 15.

Mike Lacey = Marge Schott?

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We don’t want to drag all this us vs. them stuff up again — especially since, like, we won — but something uncanny has occurred. Village Voice Media honcho/bully Mike Lacey has been in some mighty hot water since he chose to use the “n-word” in a speech to a roomful of journalists on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. (Watch the video!).

Perhaps worst of all, he was trying to be cool.

That immediately put us in mind of a similar gaffe by former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, one which lead to her eventual downfall. So, like the Internet-savvy alt.weekly we are, we dialed up the Intertubez — and look!

MUG SHOT
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MARGE SCHOTT
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Like we said, uncanny.

Moth Spin continues

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Tiny moth, giant flap, aerial spraying of female pheromones begins soon.
“Everyone agrees, public should “rely on sound science” and shut the door on false information.”
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So states a recent California Department of Food and Agriculture press release, as the state seeks to allay public outcry in face of an impending deadline to begin aerial spray for the Light Brown Apple Moth.

The press release quotes California Association of Professional Scientists President Patty Valez saying that, “The report released by the joint health departments revealed that there is no link between the Light Brown Apple Moth spraying program and reported symptoms. In fact, it underscores the importance of a sound scientific evaluation in what has turned into a controversial but important aerial spraying program.”
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The press release quotes Monterey Farm Bureau President Jason Smith saying, “IIf unchecked, the moth would damage native plants and would undermine our efforts to reduce pesticide use and improve water quality. It would raise international trade restrictions, erecting barriers to our farm exports and further weakening our rural economy.”

The release even draws on today’s Chronicle, which observes that “the state study noted most of the reports – even those requiring medical attention – were consistent with rates of common respiratory problems.”
But the release doesn’t report the reaction of Assemblymember John Laird, (D-Santa Cruz) whose district was sprayed last fall.

Maybe that’s because of Laird’s scathing response to the LBAM health affects report issued by the state Office of Environment Health Hazard Assessment, the Department of Pesticide Regulation and the Department of Public Health this week.
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“I’m disappointed that what should have been a very serious scientific effort started long ago, became an exercise where just 10 percent of the reported cases were analyzed and the findings have been used effectively as spin for the CDFA,” Laird observed.

The CDFA did not mention that the California Organic Farmers no longer supports the spraying.

“To say that there is no information to indicate a link between the spraying and health affects is not the same as saying there is no link between spraying and health affects. The state did not reach out to a single doctor for the report. At a minimum, the reports associated with doctors should have been retrieved and given full analysis, including speaking with the reporting physicians.”

The price of the torch

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So Gavin Newsom’s torch episode — which disappointed almost everyone and pissed off a lot of us — cost the city $600,000 plus. That’s at a time when we’re laying off city staff by the hundreds and closing critical services.

Six figures to give China a video postcard. Nicely done, Mr. Mayor.

How to hire more cops

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Rebecca Kaplan, who is one of my favorite politicians, is running for Oakland City Council — and she has a great idea how to solve one of the city’s most pressing problems.

See, Oakland can’t hire enough cops. That means a voter-approved community-policing plan, which requires foot patrols in all the districts, is way behind schedule; there just aren’t enough officers to walk the beats. The OPD has more than a hundred job openings, and not enough applicants. And among those who apply, a lot don’t make it through the police academy.

So the city of Oakland is spending a lot of money on recruiting (including billboards near the Bay Bridge, which Kaplan, an AC Transit board member, thinks is nuts: “I know the demographics of the people crossing that bridge, and trust me, none of them are going to apply to be Oakland cops.”)

One of the things the city has learned is that ex-military people tend to do better in the academy — they already have the physical fitness and disciplinary training. So the city is sending fliers to military bases around the country. “Which is not terribly effective,” Kaplan told us in an interview today. “The thing is, with stop-loss, nobody’s really gettiing OUT of the military right now.”

But there’s a perfect applicant pool that the city is ignoring.

“There are 5,000 people who have been kicked out of the military because they’re gay or lesbian,” she said. “They have a dishonorable discharge, so they may have trouble getting work. But a lot of them are totally qualified to be Oakland cops.

“The OPD pays about four times as much as the military, the Bay Area is a great place for gays and lesbians, and if you’ve been policing Baghdad, moving to Oakland is going to look pretty attractive.”

The names of those 5,000 people are accessible, if the city wanted to do a little work to round them up (Ron Dellums, former chair of the House Armed Services Committee, could probably handle it with one phone call).

But that might not even be necessary: “If the Oakland mayor and police chief held a press conference and said, hey, Uncle Sam doesn’t want you but Oakland does, I suspect the word would get out.”

Somebody ought to put this woman on the City Council.

Fong: False alarm on torch

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By Emma Lierley

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Chief of Police Heather Fong addressed the city’s decision to change the Olympic Torch route, claiming that it was a spontaneous decision and that there was no pre-planned contingency.

Fong said that SFPD officers had been monitoring the situation along The Embarcadero since 8am Wednesday morning and as more and more people showed up, and as “groups of opposing views started verbally confronting each other” the higher-ups began contemplating a change in route.

Stating that an incident at Bryant and Embarcadero around 12:30, in which a charter bus “moving certain [Olympic] items” was stopped by “a very large group” of protestors, influenced the decision to change to route. According to Fong, a false report came through that the bus had run over protestors, which was a major factor to change the route.

“I saw the crowd, I saw the bus, and at that point we started to move away from the Embarcadero,” Fong said.

However, this reporter observed that from 12:30 until 1pm, there were no more than twenty peaceful protestors who had laid themselves in front of the bus and covered themselves with Tibetan flags, with only a line of four cops protecting it. By 1:20, all protestors around the bus were gone.

Fong also said that large groups of people along The Embarcadero who were unwilling to move when told by police influenced the decision to change the route as well.

Despite reports that demonstrations along the planned route were by and large peaceful, Fong stated that it was “very clear there was no way to safely go down Embarcadero.”

She estimated that roughly 500 to 600 SFPD officers were called out, together with 350 officers from other departments around the Bay area, and representatives from federal agencies as well.

There were five arrests made yesterday, all settled in citations, and no injuries.

Migden pushes back against state’s “can’t confirm” LBAM related health claims

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State Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco/North Bay) released the following statement in response to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) study that was unable to find a link between aerial spraying for the Light Brown Apple Moth and 650 reports of adverse health affects after last fall’s spraying in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties:

“OEHHA says that it was unable to confirm a link between spraying and adverse health effects because most health complaints did not contain enough information to determine the cause of symptoms. Clearly, people should refrain from assuming that this means that no link exists. What residents must understand is that the spraying plan for the Bay Area will be much longer in duration than last fall’s and that no long-term studies have been done on the health affects of the spray that will be used—a spray that encapsulates the pesticide in tiny plastic spheres that people will inhale. How can that possibly be good for us?”

Video: The great torch chase

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Video journalists Rhyen Coombs and Lisa Pickoff-White report from yesterday’s Olympic torch rally and protest on participants’ disappointment at the flame’s last minute route change:

(For pics of the protest, click here. For a video slideshow of Tuesday’s Tibet vigil, click here.)

Here’s Guardian reporter Emma Lierley’s take on yesterday’s events:

The great torch chase

The running of the Olympic torch yesterday left many hundreds of people pissed because, well, they never saw it. If you were like me, however, and came equipped with a bicycle and the wherewithal to chase the damned thing all over the city, then it became a rousing, and rather difficult, game of hide-and-go-seek.

For the majority of the crowd, that was not an option. In the hours leading up to the planned torch run, the scene along the Embarcadero was entirely peaceful. At noon, Pier 48 held rows of Chinese men and women practicing the drum rhythms that would play to honor the torch as it came past. Chinese flags fluttered in the Bay breeze, children ran and laughed, and the crowd was held back from the torch route by three layers of fencing.

Down the line, protesting blocks formed, and pro-Tibetan protesters stopped a bus at Bryant and Embarcadero around 12:30 PM. Roughly twenty people laid down in front of a charter bus, covered themselves with Tibetan flags, and covered the front of the bus with “Save Tibet” stickers. A line of four police officers guarded the bus, but once again, it was a family affair, and little kids ran around calling for a free Tibet along with the adults.

Chinese flags mingled with Tibetan flags, and each group of supporters or protestors tried to over-shout the other one, but the scene was relatively tame. The rest of Embarcadero was lined with similar crowds, some holding Chinese flags, some holding pro-Tibet signs, and some just eating their lunch, waiting for the event to start.

Back at the corner of 3rd and Embarcadero around 1:30, and I heard the angriest words of the day coming from an exasperated elderly woman who was militantly holding her spot on the corner, facing the 3rd street Bridge.

“Hey, asshole, you need to keep moving. Some of us have been here for two hours,” she said to those who tried to stop in front of her, potentially blocking her view.

Can’t we just de-list the moth, already?

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Congressmember Sam Farr (D-Carmel) wants to know how and when the Light Brown Apple Moth was blacklisted–and whether it’s possible to declassify it.

“If we don’t even know why the moth is listed as a dangerous pest, it’s impossible to determine how far we must go to control it or whether the current emergency eradication tactics are justified,” said Farr today, after he asked
USDA Under Secretary Knight to explain how and when the moth was originally “blacklisted” and whether a pest with that label has ever been recategorized. Secretary Knight promised to provide answers.

“It’s vital that we get to the bottom of these questions,” Farr said.

LBAM aerial spraying is set to begin in June on the Central Coast of California, and in August in the Bay Area.

Newsom’s torch plays SF for fools

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First the route for the Beijing Olympic Torch relay was changed, following a brief opening ceremony.
Then, the closing ceremony was shifted to an undisclosed location.

These last minute changes left all the thousands of people who came to support, protest or simply witness the torch’s historic relay thwarted.

And they meant that China has got some relatively upbeat television footage to show back home, featuring an unencumbered torch being run through the protest-free streets of San Francisco! Talk about a far cry from reality.

“Disgraceful and shameful” said Board of Supervisor President Aaron Peskin of the City’s switch and bait.

‘I have every reason to believe this was a well developed plan by Gavin Newsom and his chief of police in conjunction with the government of China and the US State Department,” Peskin continued. “It was designed to please the government of China and give them the TV footage they want to portray to their people. The bottom line is that Newsom has deceitfully and repeatedly misled the public. Frankly, these are the tactics that the Chinese government uses on its people. It’s a move straight from the Richard Nixon playbook.”

Asked if there was evidence to support the City’s decision to redirect the torch relay and relocate the closing ceremony, Peskin said he’d seen and heard none.

“I went down the route at 11 am, the supporters and protesters were all peaceful. This was a large decoy operation. Only Newsom played the people of San Francisco for fools. I don’t care if you were a supporter or an opponent of the torch, people brought their children, families and friends to San Francisco for a once in a lifetime experience. This was the biggest charade perpetuated by any mayor in anyone’s memory and possibly in the history of this town. The only difference between Newsom and President Hu Jintao is none. Both manipulate, are deceitful and do not run transparent governments.”

The torch, which was variously concealed in a waterfront warehouse, shipped to Van Ness with a Quackers bus in tow, and diverted through the Marina to elude protesters, was taken to SFO for a surprise closing ceremony–presumably so it could be shipped out of SF as fast as possible, away from the whiskey and fandangos–and all those people, inconveniently protesting uncomfortable stuff like China’s abysmal track record of human rights abuses and its support of dictatorship in Burma and genocide in Darfur.

Limbaugh decries cops who want ‘special rights’

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Okay, so maybe that’s actually the phrase Rush Limbaugh uses to describe LGBT rights. But when the folks in law enforcement, mostly a conservative bunch, start demanding special treatment, shouldn’t conservative pundits hit the ceiling then, too? Of course not. That would alienate a significant portion of their listening audience.

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We’ve already written in the past about police in the state of California winning special protections against publicly disclosing their personnel records. But why should their salaries be kept secret also? And their badge numbers? And, the Contra Costa Times explains in that last link, their identities?

Being a cop is tough, yeah. Just read the thousands of pages of evidence filed in Superior Court for Dennis Herrera’s gang injunctions. They read like an episode of The Wire. (Seriously, we’re surprised more reporters aren’t pouring over those records. There’s a whole lot in there about local criminal activity you haven’t seen in the news, and this is the only time you’ll have public access to so many details of what the SFPD’s Gang Task Force is up to.)

But why should salaries be kept secret, particularly when the police union’s new contract has played such a significant role in this year’s local budget deficit? All those stories from Matier & Ross about how much it costs to provide a police presence at political demonstrations would just be ruined if the police had their way. The CoCo Times and the LA Times have already been through this battle with the state Supreme Court.

Is the police lobby really that strong in Sacramento?

Tutu feted by IGLHRC

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By Michael Leonard

Archbishop Desmond Tutu offered his sincerest thanks and gratitude on Tuesday night to the audience in Grace Cathedral as he closed a moving acceptance speech, upon receiving the OUTSPOKEN Award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (ILGHRC).

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All pics by Michael Leonard

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tutu, 76, was grateful not only for the award, he said, but also the continuous support and allegiance that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and intersex persons offer to oppressed communities around the globe. “Thank you for making the world a better place,” he said.

The theme of the evening was “A Celebration of Courage.” Tutu is most definitely a living example of fearlessness, given his noted stand against apartheid in his native South Africa, as well as his outspoken support of female, as well as gay and lesbian, ordination in the Episcopal Church, a topic that has threatened a schism in that denomination. His fight against homophobia and sexual exclusivity in religion earned him the honors on this particular occasion.

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“How sad, how tragic, that the Church be so concerned with this issue when God’s children all the world over are suffering,” Tutu said. “I ask for your forgiveness for the way the Church has ostracized you.”

Tutu summed up his activist persona in a statement consistent with the humorous and humble manner with which he charmed and captivated the large crowd throughout his 20-minute speech.

“I wish many times that I would or could’ve shut up. But, I could just as well try not to breath… I cannot be but as God made me.”

Torch Songs: A report from the ground

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Ed Note: I was on my way from a press conference at the federal building at around 1:30 today when I saw the anti-Torch demonstrators, at least a couple hundred of them, surge out of Civic Center Plaza, across the street, and up the steps of City Hall. It was a pretty dramatic moment, with all their brightly colored flags whipping in the stiff wind and their chants echoing against the marble facade.

I stuck around for a few minutes, flanking a phalanx of bored media types and a line of motorcycle cops contendedly contemplating the overtime they were racking up, to see if anything else went down. I listened to more chanting and and watched more flag waving until a cameraman from one of the networks leaned over and said, “Maybe something will happen when Richard Gere speaks later.”

Guardian Intern Emma Lierley had a lot more stamina than I did. She followed the proceedings all day and filed the following report. – JB Powell

With the Beijing Olympic torch set to be received Wednesday, pro-Tibetan protestors ran their own torch through the streets of San Francisco Tuesday. The rally was held in multiple locations, including the UN Plaza, the steps of City Hall, and the section of Geary Street that boarders the Chinese Consulate. Hundreds of participants loudly denounced the “genocide torch” and called for a free Tibet.

The protest began Tuesday morning in the UN Plaza, as Tibetan flags snapped in the wind and a group of monks from the Gyuto Vajrayana Center in San Jose chanted a blessing over the crowd. The Buddhist monk Thupten Donyo, manager of the Gyuto Vajrayana Center, was very excited about the day’s events, and told the Guardian that never before had Tibet been given such a chance to speak to the world.

“We lost our country fifty years ago,” he said, “and we are struggling to keep our culture alive.”

Protesting the torch

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You have to wonder what Beijing and the International Olympic Committee were thinking.

A country with real human rights problems, involving not only the horrors in Darfur but the immensely popular, mediagenic Dalai Lama and Tibet, hosts the Olympics. The torch goes through several countries where political protests are common and there’s a large population ready to scream about China’s repressive regime. Then it stops in San Francisco, where there’s a large Chinese population and an equally large population of political activists ….

What, you didn’t think there’d be protests?

Now the IOC is actually talking about scrapping the rest of the torch tour, which would be silly. There will still be protests around the Olympics — and there should be.

If China wants the PR boost of hosting the Olympics, it will have to deal with the fact that the news media will also focus on human rights and other issues Bejing would rather ignore. The Olympics are too much of a spectacle these days; there will be too many reporters looking for stories, and protesters around the world ready to offer them.

The protests have been immensely successful so far. They’ve done exactly what they’re designed to do: Focus press attention on China, Tibet and Darfur. Nobody needs to disrupt the Olympic torch in San Francisco; in fact, it’s great that the torch is here. The torch brings media, and the more the better. Mayor Newsom needs to make public the final route in plenty of time for the activists to show up; the protesters need to be peaceful — and visible, and loud.

I love this. It’s the best tradition of this city.

John Edwards: 60,645 hurt in war

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Thank you, former presidential candidate and former senator from North Carolina John Edwards for a great letter called “Broken Soldiers, and a Broken System” in the New York Times today.

In it, Edwards notes that the frequently reported number of the wounded in action (29,320 in March 1) does not include everyone who’s been hurt.

“The complete number of nonfatal casualties in Iraq is 60,645. Most assume the wounded number includes all, but it does not. It leaves out another 8,273 injured and 23,052 who became ill and required medical air transport from the war zone,” writes Edwards, who contends that this under reporting explains why “both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are unprepared to care for the service members who have been hurt in the Iraq war.”

Noting that 154,000 war vets already sleep on grates and under bridges every night, Edwards observes, “we have tens of thousands set to come hom, and we aren’t prepared. Every day we should honor the more than 4,000 lives lost: every suicide, bullet or serious accident.”
“And every day we should honor those who have been hurt. That number is 60,645 and rising.

Barack Obama-sistible

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Another crazy day in the presidential election.
Another crazy Obama video.

Adam Werbach makes me puke

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I heard Adam Werbach, the onetime boy wonder of the Sierra Club, on Forum this morning, talking about how wonderful it is that Wal-Mart is starting to use special trucks that rely on batteries when they idle to save diesel fuel.

And I have to say: He made me want to puke. I wanted to jump into the radio and slap some sense into him and say:

Adam, Adam: Wal-Mart is the very definition of an unsustainable business. This is company that imports cheap shit made with near-slave labor in countries where there are no laws against putting 12-year-olds in factories, ships it to a few distribution points in the U.S. and then trucks it all over to shopping malls with giant parking lots where everyone drives. Wal-Mart cuts costs so aggressively that its employees go on public assistance, and in the process drives locally owned, independent businesses into bankruptcy.

Wal-Mart represents a fundamentally flawed economic model that is as much to blame for the problems in the American economy as the subprime mortgage meltdown. Money is sucked out of communities to profit one of the richest families in the world as main-street businesses, which might actually serve pedestrians and shoppers who take transit, businesses that keep money in the community and create and preserve decent jobs and wealth for middle-class people, are killed off.

I know Werbach thinks that moving the world’s largest retailer toward better practices is worth the effort.

But you can’t make Wal-Mart anything but an environmental train wreck and an economic disaster, and to even try gives credibility to a truly awful corporation with a horrible business model.

But I guess that’s what happens when you sell your sustainability consulting company to an ad agency.

SF’s new deal for fossil fuel plants

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The SF Public Utilities Commission and the Board of Supervisors will soon be hearing details of a new contract to build two fossil fuel-burning power plants in the city. JPower, an Illinois-based subsidiary of the national power company of Japan, backed out of a deal to build a plant for the city when, back in October, the Board and PUC urged city staffers to pursue a city-owned operation instead.

Now a company called ICC is negotiating a deal with the city to build and run the plant, but according to PUC staff, the city would own the facility outright. The previous deal would have given JPower control of the facilities to run for profit, eventually turning ownership over to the city after 30 years. The ICC contract includes upgrading the four turbines, constructing the plants, and negotiating the land transactions, and power purchase and interconnection agreements.

The “peaker” power plant, which includes three natural gas combustion turbines generating 150 megawatts of power for “peak” needs, will be sited in the Bayview/Potrero neighborhood. A fourth turbine will be in southern San Francisco, as emergency reserve power for the airport.

The California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) has said San Francisco needs an on-demand “firm” power source for optimal grid reliability, but many have questioned the viability of that claim now that the Transbay Cable will be funneling more wattage our way and Community Choice Aggregation is coming online, a plan that would cut our electricity needs and replace much of them with renewables. The Brightline Defense Project, representing the A. Philip Randolph Institute and residents of Bayview who have been overwhelmed with power plant pollution for decades, have sued the city to stop the plant.

At last Friday’s LAFCO hearing, PUC staffer Barbara Hale offered a brief update on the contract and said it would be heard by the PUC on Tuesday and if accepted, sent on to the Board for ultimate approval. Despite a more publicly-owned and controlled plan for the plants, Supes. Ross Mirkarimi and Chris Daly are still questioning whether the city really needs then at all. “I’m just not sold on the fact that we need the peakers,” said Mirkarimi.

Daly asked about the status of closing the notoriously noxious Mirant power plant, which has been the hook for the peakers – ISO has said they’d pull the “reliability must-run” agreement that keeps Mirant open if they could count on power coming into the grid from the peakers. Back when JPower was still in the picture, Mayor Gavin Newsom negotiated a sweet deal with Mirant, which agreed to shutter in exchange for special favors from the Planning Department when they settle on a new use for the land.

Daly, citing the deal, said, “Very clearly the goal posts have been moved on the issue of Mirant.” He urged the city to move them again when it comes to the peakers, by coming together to oppose them and tell Cal-ISO we don’t want them. “I think what Sacramento is taking advantage of is we’re not together…I’m sick of getting bullied around by Sacramento bureaucrats….If we really want to wean ourselves off the dirty fossil fuel plants it’s going to take the spending of some political will.”

Mirkarimi asked Hale, if the peakers didn’t exist, what would shut Mirant. Hale said Cal-ISO only sees dispatchable, on-demand power as adequate. Intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar (though ISO may be changing their tune on solar) don’t count. “There are renewable resources that do, like geothermal.” She said the PUC was currently studying the possibility of deep-well geothermal for San Francisco.

McGoldrick wants Solar funds for low-income housing

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Sup. Jake McGoldrick just had an epiphany: install solar panels on affordable, low-income housing projects, citywide.

That way the City can green San Francisco, create local jobs and business opportunities—and eventually reduce to zero the utility bills of low-income folks.

McGoldrick’s moment of clarity came in face of increasing pressure from local solar businesses and work creation programs to support Mayor Gavin Newsom’s recently announced Solar Energy Incentive Program.

McGoldrick says he supports going green and hiring locally, but he balked at the lack of public discussion about the mayor’s program, which uses tax payer dollars to subsidize solar installation on private property.

Pitched as a pilot project, Newsom’s solar energy incentive program proposes to allocate $3 million between now and the end of June, and $3-5 million in subsequent fiscal years. That adds up to more than $50 million by 2018.

McGoldrick believes these monies would be better used subsidizing installations on public housing and non-profit-owned, low-income projects.

Supporters of Newsom’s proposed Solar Incentive program argue that could better leverage a portion of the SFPUC’s Mayor’s Energy Conservation Account, and get more out of Hetch Hetchy dollars spent in energy efficiency and solar.

But as McGoldrick observes, the Mayor’s current plan fails to address public ownership concerns.

‘That’s why I’m going to try and give these MECA funds to affordable housing projects,” McGoldrick said.. “That way, people get jobs, solar companies come here, the city goes green–and we do power purchase agreements.”

San Francisco only has a 30 percent home ownership rate. But since a portion of that percentage are absentee landlords, the City could only target an ever smaller fraction of the city’s roof tops for solar installation, under theMayor’s current Solar Energy Incentive Program.

‘Tenants can’t jump in and spend $25,000 to replace their roof, and you can’t have the question of jobs be the tail wagging the dog,” McGoldrick said.

Stop-Loss notes

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There were only 20 people, including myself, watching Stop-Loss when it opened in Oakland on Friday night. Two of those people were my family members.

Most of us were in, or close to, tears, by the end of the movie, which refers to a provision in all military service contracts that says a service member’s duty can be involuntarily extended, won’t be a box office hit.

Much like A Mighty Heart>, Rendition and In the Valley of Elah, films dealing with the nitty gritty of war aren’t popular with the movie-going public.

But if people can’t bear to spend 120 minutes looking at realities of war, how do they expect to bring troops home?

OMG, the naked Yoga Guy is back…

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…only this time, he’ll be carrying a torch.

nakedyoga.JPG

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make an indelible statement for human rights” — naked!

“We are inviting you and your nude friends to join us,” says the invite, sent to us by former mayoral candidate George Davis, who points out that the “original Olympic Athletes participated nude.”

He also points out that the original Olympic athletes covered themselves with olive oil, and that he “will bring Baby Oil for those who wish the look.”

For more information about what to wear, where to meet, etc, read on:
“Meet: :12:30 pm sharp, near the front of Tacqueria Pancho Villa, Pier 1, the Embarcadero (waterfront side), the next building north of the Ferry Building. Look for torch(es) labeled “Human Rights”

“After the Official Run passes (estimate 1:10 pm), we will jog/walk fast to Bay/Embarcadero. When the Official Torch Run returns from the Marina District, we will follow the Official Run to the closing ceremony at Justin Herman Plaza. I estimate the total distance at a little over one mile.”

Optional: Make a faux-torch, or two, labeled “Human Rights.” If you don’t have one, don’t worry. I am happy to relay a torch to you. Note: Don’t bother with a real flame because of Fire Marshall and permit issues.

George Davis – the “naked yoga guy” – coordinator of torch run (415) 722-2968

Bureaucrats blow $375k reading Matier & Ross

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Employees working for the city and county of San Francisco have squandered $375,000 in salaried work hours over the last 12 months reading San Francisco Chronicle columnists Matier & Ross, time that could have been spent finding cheaper ways to provide a police presence at political demonstrations and repaint parking garages located at far-flung BART stations, according to a new report by Controller Ed Harrington.

“Our analysis shows that City Hall staffers spent precious work time reading about how wasteful they are when they could have been figuring out how to make the board’s chambers ADA compliant for less money or more quickly dispatch frivolous and costly lawsuits against the city,” Harrington said.

The report shows that overpaid City Hall staffers in particular devoted seemingly endless salaried hours reading about how they and their colleagues have burdened San Francisco’s already bloated $338 million budget deficit and how Jerry Brown’s recent office redo in Sacramento cost a whole lot of taxpayer money.

“Dude, I’m totally expensive,” said one City Hall insider after reading about how much it cost for him to have a big title but few actual tasks. “And holy shit, did Don Perata’s new taxpayer-subsidized car really cost that much? No wonder we’re laying off teachers.”

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