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Politics & Government

Council Will Not Oppose Expansion of AES Power Plant

Fighting the company's plan to increase the rarely used facility's capacity and put it into use more often could prove too costly, the panel says.

The City Council said Tuesday that it will not oppose AES Southland's plan to modernize its Harbor Drive power plant to increase its capacity and put the rarely used facility into use more often. The council said it's concerned about the environmental effects of expanding the facility, but decided to back away from a possibly costly court fight.

"It's not the time to pick a fight with the bigger bully on the block," said Councilman Pat Aust.

The city attorney had been ready to investigate the legal possibility of phasing out the power plant, but the councilmen said don't bother.

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City employees just took a six percent pay cut to help alleviate a budget shortfall. Opposing AES would be too costly, the council said, and it is not willing to spend what might amount to half a million dollars a year in legal fees in an attempt to eliminate the power plant and use the land for something else, such as a park.

AES is "very litigious," warned Redondo Beach City Attorney Mike Webb. Webb said the city has the ability to shut the plant down through rezoning which would make the plant a nonconforming use, so long as there's a long enough time period given to phase out the facility. In 2004, the city's planning commission investigated the possibility of phasing out the power plant, a report Webb offered to review.

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AES President Eric Pendergraft told the council Tuesday that the price of opposing AES's plans for expanding the capacity of the plant would be "enormous."

"I think it's not simply a matter of whether or not the public would prefer a park or power plant," Pendergraft said. "It rather is a matter of weighing the real costs and benefits."

Even if the city was successful in preventing the power company from putting the plant into use more often, Redondo would have to buy the land and pay to have the facility relocated, according to Pendergraft, and the city would also lose out on future revenue resulting from the plant's operation.

Councilman Bill Brand disagreed with Pendergraft's assessment, later saying AES is responsible for cleaning-up their land and Redondo would have no obligation to buy it. AES would still own the land and benefit from the economic value of it, Brand said. 

Brand was the only councilman in favor of having the city attorney draft a memorandum on the likelihood of being successful in blocking AES's plans.

The plant hurts business in the area, causes pollution and is visually unappealing, he said. The city has the power to dictate the use of the land, he added, and the California Energy Commission could be persuaded to oppose AES's plans for expansion. Increasing the plant's capacity is "reindustrializing the waterfront," Brand said.

But the rest of the council saw a losing battle if the matter wound up in court.

"We could lose our ass," Aust said.

"The community would be disappointed if we stood down just because we were afraid we would get sued," Brand countered. "It's not about who owns the land. It's about what we want for our waterfront. We have the power to determine what land uses occur on our waterfront."

Brand said opposing AES's plans for expansion is a rare opportunity to rid the community of the plant.

Other councilmen pointed out that even if Redondo Beach successfully opposed AES's plans to modernize the plant, AES would still own the land.

"It's absolutely, unequivocally about who owns the land," Aust said. "We do not own the land. We have no right to that land. That property belongs to AES. Whether it's a power plant or not, if we were successful in telling them they couldn't re-power, they still own it. They still have the option to decide what they're going to do with it. The still have the option of deciding how bad they want to punish us for creating that situation."

Even if the city thwarted AES's plans for its plant, Aust said, Redondo does not have the money to clear and remediate the land, especially after a likely legal fight with the company.

Rather than investigate legal measures, Mayor Mike Gin and Pendergraft agreed to sit down together and discuss the council's concerns about the environmental effects of modernizing the plant.

It's unclear where the public stands on the issue. Some people in town would like to see the power plant property converted to park space, but there is no cost estimate. Aust and other councilmen consider AES a good neighbor because it pays taxes and might even pay more of them if it is able to modernize its plant and thus generate power for Southern California more often.

AES owns and operates two other power plants in Southern California besides the Redondo Beach one, and it plans to modernize equipment and increase capacity at all of them. Plans call for the Redondo site to house a desalination plant.

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