Supervisor Mirkarimi has introduced the Clean Energy Charter Amendment for the November ballot. The objective of this amendment is to accomplish the following: Pursue 51% of the city's electricity generation from renewable resources by 2017, 75% by 2030, and 100% by 2040; Establish an Office of Ratepayer Advocate to defend against excessive or unfair rate hikes; Establish a workforce development provision for green-job training and placement; and to require that within 180 days of passage, a feasibility study is developed and then publicly vetted on municipalizing or reconfiguring the franchise contract between San Francisco and PG&E.

By Ari Burack Fog City Journal

June 25, 2008

San Francisco supervisors Tuesday approved a resolution urging the city to further explore energy transmission options from outside the city in order to close an aging, heavily polluting power plant in the city’s southeastern Potrero district.

As the clubbers in Britain's first-ever eco-nightclub rave their little hearts out in the coming months, they'll be doing their part to conserve energy. Well, their feet will be, because the energy that powers 60% of the club is going to be generated by the springy dance floor beneath them. The springs in the floor are connected to power generating blocks made of piezoelectric crystals. It's similar to what Enviu, a Netherlands-based research group, proposed for Holland-based clubs, but with a different accent. Like that system, the British club's crystals produce current when subjected to pressure created by the gyrating bodies above. But millionaire founder Andrew Charalambous didn't stop with spring-filled floors—he's taking the entire green thing very seriously.

By Ari Burack Fog City Journal

June 17, 2008

San Francisco supervisors will consider a proposal today urging the city to come up with a new solution for closing the controversial Mirant power plant — a solution that would have the city rely solely on outside energy transmission sources.

http://www.sfgate.com
In a stunning about-face, the California Independent System Operator has given the next generation of San Franciscans a chance to breathe clean air. It turns out that there is a way to shut down the ghastly Mirant power plant in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood without building new, fossil-fuel-spewing replacements. San Francisco's leadership will just have to work a little bit harder to make it happen.

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Friday, May 23, 2008
Microscopic air pollutants from trucks, cars, power plants and wood burning may pose greater health problems than previously believed, according to state researchers.

Photo by Rebecca Wilkowski Need for Replacement Generation Questioned

By Deia de Brito The Potrero View

Almost a decade ago the Potrero Power Plant Citizen’s Task Force was created by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to examine Mirant Corporation’s proposal to construct a 540 megawatt (MW) generating station to replace the existing Potrero Power Plant, San Francisco’s largest single pollution source.  Had the California Energy Commission approved the proposal, the new, larger facility would have operated for at least a third of a century.  Mirant pitched the plant, in part, as a way of replacing the Hunters Point Power Plant, which was ultimately shuttered two years ago in exchange for the development of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s multi-million dollar Jefferson-Martin transmission line.

By Ari Burack Fog City Journal

May 20, 2008

San Francisco supervisors today agreed to once again delay a vote on the contentious proposal to build new power plants in the city’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, while detractors scramble for acceptable alternatives.

A proposal to replace an aging power plant in San Francisco’s Potrero District
with four new fossil fuel burning plants, has come under fire from environmentalists who say the project
is mired in economic and environmenal flaws.

20. 080592 [Appropriating $273,015,000 of COP Revenue for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Electrical Reliability Power project for Fiscal Year 2007-2008] Supervisors Maxwell, Peskin
Ordinance appropriating $273,015,000 of San Francisco Certificates of Participation 2008 Series B and 2008 Series C to fund the San Francisco Electrical Reliability Project also referred to as the Combustion Turbine projects in the Public Utilities Commission for FY 2007-2008.
(Supervisor Alioto-Pier dissented in committee.)
(Fiscal Impact.)