City urges state panel to force removal of old power plant

Sep 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Barbara Henry North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Carlsbad city officials are asking the state to reject a new power plant planned just east of the aging Encina Power Station or force the company behind the proposal to keep its promise to tear down the seaside Encina station once the new plant is built.

The company, NRG Energy, asked the state last week to be released from an agreement it made with Carlsbad earlier this year to dismantle the hulking power station, near the corner of Carlsbad Boulevard and Cannon Road.

If NRG is allowed to renege on that commitment, then Carlsbad isn't going to get any benefit out of the company's much-discussed plans for the new power plant, city officials said Tuesday. The city has strongly opposed that project.

Their comments came just before the City Council, in its role as the city's Housing and Redevelopment Commission, unanimously backed a resolution stating the proposed power plant doesn't meet the city's property redevelopment standards and shouldn't get permits.

Carlsbad doesn't have permit authority over large power plant projects. The authority rests with the state Energy Commission.

In an email to city officials last week announcing NRG's request, an official with the Energy Commission wrote that the company argued that "demolition and removal of the existing Encina power plant would make it difficult, due to financial considerations to build" the new project.

Kerry Siekmann of the Terramar Association, a homeowners group that represents the coastal homes near the Encina plant, told the City Council that she attended the state hearing and was shocked by NRG's request.

"Basically, what happened to us was a full-on ambush," she told the council Tuesday.

Reached via telephone later in the afternoon, NRG spokeswoman Lori Neumann said her company made its request because Carlsbad hasn't honored its part of the agreement. As part of the deal, Carlsbad agreed that it would stop opposing the project and work with the company on demolition plans, she said.

"The city has not ceased its opposition and has not engaged in ... discussions" about removing the old plant, she said.

Carlsbad officials and NRG representatives have been sparring for several years over the company's proposal to put a new power plant on the eastern end of the Encina site between the railroad tracks and Interstate 5.

City officials have said that there is no need to put an air-cooled plant on prime coastal and lagoon property. They want to see the Encina site redeveloped, and have suggested having tourist services, shops and housing in the area.

NRG officials have said that they want to free up the front end of their property for redevelopment, but argue that the back end near the railroad tracks is a perfect spot for power plant development.

After NRG notified the state that it would like to get out of the plant-removal agreement, the Energy Commission told Carlsbad officials that they had until this Friday to submit comments on the request. Because of that quick deadline, Carlsbad added the special meeting onto the normal monthly workshop session, city officials said Tuesday.