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Mirant will also receive "an expedited review" for any plans they propose for the company-owned land the 40-plus year old plant currently sits on (Herrera made sure to note that there is no guarantee the review will be "approved" as well as "expedited."). Mirant consultant Sam Lauter said that the company currently has no development plans for the site.Supervisor Sophie Maxwell -- a veteran advocate of shutting down the Potrero plant -- will introduce the proposed settlement to the Board on Tuesday. Rather oddly, she urged her "new colleagues" to be open-minded, because they "may hear negative things" before then. Say what? It's hard to imagine what city politician would say that, yes, he or she supports the aging, structurally unsound smoke-spewing power plant blighting the city's poorest sector -- but, then, perhaps Maxwell is still smarting over the Board's reversal years ago on its plan to buy those combustion turbines and build peaker plants.
Herrera was more to the point.
"When we had the peaker plant discussion about a year ago, what we heard folks in this building [City Hall] and outside this building saying was we don't need additional dirty power plants in San Francisco. Let's just convice Cal-ISO and the regulators we don't need anything in addition," he said.
"Here we have a plan that does exactly that. To be quite honest, I would be very, very disappointed if someone comes out and says he has a problem with this deal that irrevocably commits Mirant [to leaving] the power business [in San Francisco]. We got them to sign on with exactly what people were saying they wanted a year ago."
Update, 1:30 p.m.: Mirant spokesman Chip Little responded to our e-mail querying what, exactly, his company got out of this deal: "From the settlement Mirant Potrero gets the city to drop its lawsuit against Potrero regarding the UMB [Unreinforced Masonry Building] ordinance. The City agrees to support any permits required for continued operations of the Potrero Plant through the end of 2010. The City agrees to give Mirant Potrero or any successors priority processing of a new site plan and waive city costs when Mirant Potrero redevelops the Potrero property."
