Davis to push backup diesel
By Chris Bowman
Bee Staff Writer
(Published May 24, 2001)
In a major reversal of environmental policy, Gov. Gray Davis will announce a
plan to relieve California's overloaded electricity grid this summer by
paying businesses to run their high-polluting backup generators in advance
of anticipated blackouts, a top energy adviser to the governor said
Wednesday.
"The backup generators will help us get through the summer," said S. David
Freeman, who recently resigned as general manager of the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power to lead Davis' drive for energy conservation.
Freeman said he would leave it to Davis to disclose details of the plan.
"The governor will announce what he's going to do," he said Wednesday in a
wide-ranging interview on energy issues with The Bee.
Roger Salazar, the governor's deputy press secretary, would not confirm when
or whether Davis would make such an announcement.
"I don't know that the governor has signed off on anything like that,"
Salazar said.
Under the plan, participating businesses would turn on backup generators and
simultaneously disconnect from the electricity grid when power supplies are
at Stage 3 -- nearly depleted.
The state would pay the companies for the much-needed power that would be
saved by converting to diesel generation.
Deploying diesel-powered generators -- the dirtiest of internal combustion
engines -- to forestall blackouts is another sign of the governor's struggle
to get more megawatts flowing through California.
Earlier this week Davis lowered his estimate of the amount of new power that
will come on line this summer from 5,000 megawatts to 4,000 megawatts. A
megawatt is enough power for 750 to 1,000 households.
The diesel plan also marks a significant turnabout in the Davis
administration's policy.
The governor and his appointees at the state Air Resources Board uniformly
have rejected such proposals from industries, utilities and the operator of
the state's electricity grid, arguing that routine use of the backup diesels
would endanger public health.
San Diego Gas & Electric has one such proposal scheduled for a vote today by
the Davis-appointed state Public Utilities Commission.
Environmentalists who have been catching word of the Davis plan this week
argue that it would shatter the governor's repeated promises to stand firm
on air quality standards during the energy crisis.
A letter signed Wednesday by several of the state's leading environmental
organizations, including the American Lung Association of California, urged
Davis to reconsider.
"Given your awareness of the public health threats of diesel emissions,
please stop and have these proposals considered in a more thoughtful and
public manner," the letter states.
Freeman argued, however, that the additional health threat from
non-emergency use of diesel generators is "marginal" compared with the
health and safety problems triggered by power outages.
"This is a no-brainer," Freeman said. "You've got human lives at stake here.
This is a scary situation."
Freeman cited, for example, people on life-support systems that could go
awry in blackouts.
But Sandra Spelliscy, attorney for the environmentalist Planning and
Conservation League, countered, "If the health impacts are so marginal, why
has the governor's own air quality enforcement agency opposed this?"
Industries ranging from hospitals to food processing plants and data
management centers have diesel-powered generators -- some the size of
locomotives -- that kick on when a storm or earthquake knocks out power.
Unlike diesel-powered trucks and buses, most diesel standby generators run
with little or no pollution controls because they are intended only for
emergencies.
Though the latest models run cleaner and more efficiently, most generators
in use today produce about 500 times more emissions of smog-forming nitrogen
oxides per megawatt-hour as a new natural gas-fired power plant, according
to air board engineers. Further, the diesels spew high amounts of breathable
soot particles that can cause cancer, the engineers say.
Davis' plan would limit the use of the generators to days when the grid
operator declares a Stage 3 alert, meaning the power supplies are running
low and rolling blackouts may be ordered to keep the state's entire grid
from collapsing, according to Freeman.
Salazar, the governor's spokesman, said only, "Any backup generation
involving diesel will have to be used as a last resort to prevent
blackouts."
Environmentalists who are trying to head off the plan said it would have the
state paying participating businesses at least 35 cents per kilowatt-hour,
roughly three times the rate consumers typically pay for electricity.
Freeman would not confirm the pay rate.
The Davis administration has offered generators willing to sell new power
exclusively to the state 50 percent discounts on the air emission credits
they would need to comply with smog rules.
For operators of existing power plants, the governor has agreed to have
taxpayers pay the entire cost of polluting above allowable limits in order
to keep the lights on.
The latest plan to pay companies to run the dirty diesels during energy
alerts further loosens the environmental reins.