Economy

Hearings Begin On Proposed Carlsbad Power Plant

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published February 1, 2010 at 2:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Hearings to consider a new power plant along the coast in Carlsbad are scheduled to begin Monday.

Hearings are scheduled to start Monday to consider a new power plant along the coast in Carlsbad.

NRG Energy Inc. operates the Encina Power Station on the coast in Carlsbad. The company wants to build a new 558-megawatt power plant along Interstate-5 near the current plant. NRG said the new facility would produce enough power for 400,000 homes.

NRG's West Region President Steve Hoffmann said the coastal location is ideal for the proposed power plant.

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"We have wires, so we have transmission lines and high-pressure gas lines that serve the site," said Hoffmann. "So the existing infrastructure that's there would be very expensive to create anywhere else. And then of course, if you try to put transmission lines in neighborhoods where they don't already exist, you're going to have somebody object to those."

Hoffmann said three of the existing plant's five generators would be retired if the new project is approved.

Julie Baker is part of a Carlsbad group that opposes the new plant.

"I believe it's an inappropriate land use to have a 550 megawatt gas-fired power plant in the front yard of 100,000 Carlsbad residents and really everyone in the north county region," said Baker.

The California Energy Commission will begin hearings to consider the project on Monday at 10:30 a.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Ballroom Building located at 6450 Carlsbad Blvd. Public comment begins at 6 p.m.

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Another hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at the same location, with public comment also at 6 p.m.

Read more about the proposed Carlsbad power plant here.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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