Photo by iStock.com/GreenPimp
A decade ago, California issued an order promising beach communities that the power plants that overheat ocean water and pollute the air would cease operation by December 31, 2020. Sadly, that promise was broken in September when the State Water Resources Control Board granted extensions of up to three years to four different gas plants along the Southern California coast. However, our community doesn’t intend to let the extension of the Redondo Beach gas plant go unchallenged.
Tens of thousands of people in Redondo and Hermosa Beach (just across the street) live near this plant, which now appears set to continue emitting tons of dangerous, climate-altering pollutants into our air. Because the population grew dramatically over the last few decades, both beach communities comprise the most densely populated stretch of coastal land in the entire state.
While the population grew, so did California’s awareness that gas-burning, ocean-cooled power plants are horrible for surrounding marine environments, for the health of the people who live nearby and breathe the plant’s toxic emissions, and for the climate.
Over the last 20 years, citizens of Redondo and Hermosa Beach fought to demolish the power plant, renew the coastal wetlands, and build a community park. In 1998, as a part of California’s disastrous electric power industry deregulation, the Redondo Beach plant was purchased from Southern California Edison by AES Corporation, which quickly proposed to close the aging power plant and replace it with thousands of residences and commercial facilities on the valuable underlying coastal land.
The citizens of Redondo Beach rose in opposition, collectively shouting “No! Not on our waterfront!” We fought to halt the project in favor of parkland development at the power plant location. Eventually, our community overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led ballot initiative that required a public vote before the region could be rezoned for any purpose other than its present use (as a power plant) or for open-space parkland.
With its real estate development plan foiled, AES Corporation pushed to keep the inefficient and unnecessary power plant operating in the Southern California grid.
Last year, the AES Corporation’s land in Redondo Beach was purchased by a large investment group that claimed the plant would close and be replaced with a balance of park, wetland, and visitor uses. Thrilled by the news, we were led to believe the process would begin on December 31, 2020. Instead, challenged by the AES Corporation, the State Water Resources Control Board held hearings to consider delaying retirement dates for the four coastal facilities.
On September 1, 2020, despite heavy public opposition and the flaws in the analysis of the state’s electric power needs, the Water Resources Control Board abandoned its commitment to cleaner air, cleaner water, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by voting to extend the Redondo Beach power plant’s operation for another year, and the other water-cooled plants for three years.
Especially alarming were the board members’ predictions that they might be forced to grant more extensions over the next few years! Our state officials had 10 years to make adjustments to the regional power grid so that inefficient, dirty-burning ocean-cooled plants could be shut down. How many more years does the state truly need?
The city of Redondo Beach now plans to sue the state for not living up to its own regulations and for violating its environmental quality laws in the process. We hope the city succeeds, and that a court order will finally bring about the long awaited, and much needed, retirement of the Redondo Beach power plant.