AES on Tonight's City Council Agenda

The Redondo Beach City Council on Tuesday night will discuss a possible plan for engaging AES and the community regarding the future of the AES Redondo Beach property on North Harbor Drive.

The current AES Redondo Beach plant must be retrofitted, retired, rebuilt or obtain special exemptions to continue operating beyond 2020 due to a new ban on once-through cooling, where ocean water is pumped into the plant to cool the superheated steam used to spin the turbines and generate electricity. Parent company AES Southland has indicated that it wishes to rebuild the plant and has submitted an application to do so with the CEC.

AES officials say the new plant will run more efficiently, have a smaller footprint and provide flexibility for the grid when energy from renewable resources isn't available.

Opponents, on the other hand, argue that the plant will continue to decrease property values and blight the waterfront, despite a $300 million revitalization effort. Additionally, they point to AES' application and say a new plant will run more often than the current one, and thus produce five to 15 times more particulate pollution.

At its last meeting—during which the council voted unanimously to approve a resolution opposing a new power plant—councilmen opted to appropriate $200,000 from the city's general fund to pay for the city's role as an intervenor in the California Energy Commission's new power plant permitting processes; to direct Mayor Mike Gin to explore the creation of a task force to find alternative uses for the AES property and come back in two weeks with a report; and to direct City Attorney Mike Webb to come back in four weeks with language for a moratorium on new construction on the AES property.

Tuesday's meeting will focus on the task force; however, no details about it have been included with the online agenda.

Barring technical difficulties, Redondo Beach Patch will live-blog the discussion for those who can't make it to the meeting.

The open session of the city council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the council chambers at city hall, located at 415 Diamond St. in South Redondo Beach.