10 Reasons to Vote Yes for Measure A

10 Reasons to Oppose AES Redondo Beach Power Plant Rebuild 

1. Emissions from the new power plant would increase 700%. 
2. 6,850 students go to school within 1.5 miles of it. 
3. AES management has a horrendous track record and has been involved in several law suits and financial crisis issues including Enron.  Read this "AES Corporation: Rewriting the Rules of Management". 
4. AES's largest customer is J.P. Morgan according to the AES company fact sheet on the web site.  A bank as your largest customer?  Sounds a bit like Enron to me.  This Redondo Beach power from this plant is not needed per the CAISO and CEC reports.
5. Power plant lines bring down property values at least 25% in the Redondo Beach & South Hermosa Beach areas and block ocean views.  The power lines may go as well. This has not been studied. 
6. AES hurts the fiscal health of the Redondo King Harbor area surrounding businesses.  New waterfront developments have been put on hold because of the power plant rebuild issue.  Many new restaurants would likely follow the new Shade Hotel being built on King Harbor more money would flow to the City if the power plant was gone.  
7. Opposing it costs nothing & AES only needs the Council and others to do nothing and we all lose.  Doing nothing plays right into their hands. This is not about the future zoning of the site.  We definitely don't want a new power plant.  See map below of what this area could be. 
8. AES pays little in taxes only $385,000 / year in tax revenue to the city. 
9. AES plant borders on South Hermosa Beach and most HB residents will be affected. 
10. The loud steam blasts in the middle of the night are simply ridiculous and this beautiful park rendering (see picture below)  done by the California Coast Commission would be incredible the area. 

In a 3-2 vote, the Redondo Beach City Council decided to continue its discussion on a resolution opposing the repowering of AES Redondo Beach at the July 10 meeting. After a meeting that lasted more than seven hours until 1 am, the Redondo Beach City Council decided to delay its discussion on whether to pass a resolution opposing the repowering of the AES Redondo Beach power plant on Harbor Drive until the July 10. This will allow city staff time to hire an independent consultant to perform an amortization report on the current structure. Councilmen Matt Kilroy and Pat Aust both said they wanted to read such a report before making a final decision.  Is this just a delay tactic?  Read more on Redondo Patch and Easy Reader. 

Redondo Beach City Council 

Matt Kilory, Steve Aspel, Bill Brand, Pat Aust, Steve Diels

Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes should participate as well in support of removing the power plant. NIMBY thinking and waiting is just plain lazy and stupid.  All surrounding City Council members need to work together because this is such a big issue.  Lets set politics aside and be proactive about finding a solution to do the right thing.  This is not just about Redondo Beach and we all stand to benefit with cleaner air and potentially new development that we all can use. The King Harbor area has so much potential. Its a developers "wet dream" and huge private money would follow the opportunity to create something amazing.  

It Redondo Beach City Council's job to find an alternative solution for the power plant land.  However, we all know political people are lazy and always need LOTS of "hand holding" so they feel safe. Why would City Council members be reluctant to oppose the new power plant remodel that produces a minuscule $200,000 in tax revenue per year which is less money than the city makes from its parking garage at the pier. 

Is AES threatening Redondo Beach City Council members with a law suit?  Any initiative by the city residents is not likely to provide AES with any basis to sue the city. Finally, there is an amortization process through which a city, or a citizen's initiative, can allow businesses adequate time to get a return on their investment in a property before a specific use is banned. The proposed citizen initiative would eliminate industrial uses by 2020, which I think is plenty of time (8 years) for AES to get adequate return on their investment in the property, especially considering the majority of the equipment is old and obsolete, and esentially worthless at this point.  

AES is no stranger to crisis and law suits.  In 1992, AES flirted with disaster when its Shady Point generating facility in Oklahoma was discovered to have been discharging polluted water and to have falsified the samples it provided to the Environmental Protection Agency. In the same year, AES was forced to abandon its rebuilding of a power plant at Cedar Bay, Florida following a dispute with state officials and the local community. These events caused AES’s share price to fall by half.  AES has multiple law suits against the company (see AES Law Suits) search results.  

AES is a $9 billion public company (NYSE: AES) planning to make a $500M+ investment on a power plant that might be worth an estimated $135M (comps based on AES Huntington Beach valuation performed in 2011). AES is looking to repower the plant in 2018. They are currently using the plant only 5% of the time right now, and with an investment of $630 million for a new plant, the amount of energy needed to pay back the investment will mean lots of particulate matter in the atmosphere in Redondo, Hermosa, and surrounding communities. While the footprint will be smaller (12 acres vs the current 50 acres, 4 stacks instead of 5), any chance for revitalizing the waterfront will be lost for 50+ years as no one will want to invest in the area. Here are some points and a link to FAQs Tear Down Redondo Beach Power Plant Blog:

California Coastal Commission's study for AES power plant area

Poll: Predict The Redondo Beach Measure A Voting Results

Public OpinionPoll Results

For more details on the Redondo Beach Measure A see NoPowerPlant.com.  If you live in Redondo Beach vote on March 5th.  

Redondo Beach Considers Oil Drilling To Protect Reserves

Former Tritton Oil Drilling Site (Dirt Lot) Harbor Dr & Portofino Way in Redondo Beach

Former Oil Drilling Site 190th and Prospect in Redondo Beach

The Redondo Beach City Council took a the first step toward exploring oil drilling within city limits to boost city revenues on Tuesday. Read the RB Patch Article.

In a referral to staff, Councilman Steve Diels, who represents District No. 4 in North Redondo Beach, asked City Manager Bill Workman if city staff could examine whether Redondo Beach could tap into the "hundreds of millions of dollars" sitting beneath the city.

Additionally, Diels asked if city staff could look into the effects of possible oil drilling in Hermosa Beach on Redondo's reserves. Both cities sit on top of the Torrance Oil Field.

The councilman noted that money from potential projects could be used for various capital projects, and even implied that revenues from oil drilling could be used to pay for a park at the AES Powerplant site on Harbor Drive.

Bill Brand, who represents District No. 2. "In general, though, I don't support that kind of industrial activity going on in our town."

If the city does eventually decide to allow oil drilling, it would not be the first time oil wells were dug in Redondo Beach. According to the Redondo Beach Historical Society, wells dotted the city during the 1920s.

Lets not forget Tritton Oil & Gas Corporation abandoned the site in 1990 at 101 Portofino Way, Redondo Beach 90277.

Related Articles: 
Pat Aust recalls oil fire in Redondo Beach.
Tritton Oil & Gas Corporation oil well abandonment in 1990 
Hermosa pursuing legal action against Oil Operator Roy Stinnett in 1991 (LA Times)
Map of regional oil wells in the South Bay.
Is the AES Redondo Beach Powerplant Related to Hermosa Beach Oil Drilling

Hermosa Beach Slant Oil Drilling Maps

These maps are speculative drawings based in information we have gathered from the Macpherson proposals.  E&B oil has not submitted their drilling proposal yet.  

Map of the proposed Hermosa Beach slant oil drilling site will reach out into the ocean.  What is slant oil drilling?  The drilling will also go underground into Redondo Beach likely.  The California Coastal Commission has full authority of this drilling and has thus tidelands restrictions on where money from oil can be spent.  The oil site will also be less than 100 feet from homes when Colorado requires a 350 foot setback and California recommend 300 feet.

Do we really know what is underground nor want to disturb the environment with oil drilling pipes possibly poking through the ocean floor?  Do want want to risk the dangers of the ocean floor and our beaches sinking (subsiding)?

The proposed drilling site effects more than 50% of residents of Hermosa Beach.  Noise, air pollution, explosions or dangerous gases are all a potential consequence.  Not to mention the drilling site will be within a few hundred yards of your kids playing in the park.  If you run on the greenbelt in Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach there could be an oil pipeline to under it to Chevron Refinery in Torrance and/or a natural gas pipeline AES Power Plant in Redondo Beach.

Lets not forget about the fault line that runs across the Santa Monica Bay and the South Bay.  We have had several earthquakes offshore in Hermosa Beach and Santa Moncia bay in the past few years. 

 27 oil wells and 3 water injection wells for Fracking and Natural Gas

Horrible Air Quality

I am told by oil experts in the business that the odor from gases and drilling will be "awful" around the site.  There is no way to contain the odor or poisonous gases that come up our of the ground.  This map depicts 3 different wind scenarios we get in the area.  An onshore, offshore and no wind where the smell and gases get trapped in the valley.

Emissions generated during the drilling/development phase include vehicle emissions; diesel emissions from large construction equipment and generators, storage/dispensing of fuels, and, if installed at this stage, flare stacks; small amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates from blasting activities; and dust from many sources, such as disturbing and moving soils (clearing, grading, excavating, trenching, backfilling, dumping, and truck and equipment traffic), mixing concrete, and drilling. During windless conditions (especially in areas of thermal inversion), project-related odors may be detectable at more than a mile from the source.  Excess increases in dust could decrease forage palatability for wildlife and livestock and increase the potential for dust pneumonia.  See source.

250 Yard Heavy Impact Zone from Noise, Odor, Dangerous Gases and Explosions.   There are two parks, hundreds of homes and a jogging trail in the vicinity which I think is disgraceful.   There are probably 10+ kids under the age of 10 years old that live in the red boxed area.  Its just sad that no one thought through the ramifications.  

Projected Ripple Affect of Real Estate Losses

This is a Scenario of What Could Happen

comments powered by Disqus

Redondo AES Power Plant Rebuild is Related

E&B Oil drilling is related to AES plans to rebuild Redondo's Power Plant.  E&B will be required to build a pipeline underneath the Hermosa Beach greenbelt down to Redondo Beach for trucks to transport and/or service the low grade oil.  Do you want big oil trucks driving into the community or a PowerPlant that could use the oil to run operations?  Who knows AES might have plans to process the oil on site.  We don't know but the timing of the the AES Redondo Power Plant remodel could be related!

The oil pipeline and the power plant are separate but do share the same nuisance factors. The oil will be piped down the greenbelt to a SCE tunnel (tube) that houses other piplines and utility type uses including fiber optics that land on our beach. Some is above ground (wires) with otherstuff below ground. The power plant AES used to run on oil and had several pipelines installed over the years. SCE controls this access under utility agreements.

We need to fight this one and see the big picture of what is going on.  Big business energy is attacking a community and its our job to protect our livelihood.  Join the fight on Facebook to Tear Down Redondo's Power Plant.  Also, read the the blog similar to ours AES Power Plant Must Go.