SDG&E-Carlsbad Project Deal Lands in Court

While nations were in the thick of international climate protection negotiations in Paris, two lawsuits were filed challenging the California Public Utilities Commission’s approval of San Diego Gas & Electric’s $2.6 billion agreement to purchase power from the Carlsbad natural gas-fired generating project for 25 years.

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed suits Dec. 7 in California’s First District Court of Appeals.

“California has sold itself to the world as a leader in renewable energy, yet it continues to permit one new gas power plant after another, on the backs of California’s people and environment,” said April Rose Sommer, attorney for the Center.

Last May, regulators approved on a 4-1 vote SDG&E’s purchase of the output of the project—which was scaled back from 600 MW to 500 MW—on grounds it was needed for reliability with the early shut down of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and upcoming closure of the Encina power plant (Current, May 21, 2015).

The writ for review filed jointly by the Center and Protect Our Communities Foundation claims the CPUC failed “to determine if lower-cost and cleaner alternatives are available.” The plaintiffs also asserted the CPUC improperly folded into its decision matters outside the scope of the Carlsbad agreement proceeding. They include SDG&E’s capacity needs in 2018 and beyond. They also allege the commission decision to approve output from a smaller project gave opponents no opportunity to challenge the modification.

EarthJustice, representing the Sierra Club, stated the commission “attempted to justify its rushed approval of Carlsbad without any competitive bidding by claiming that it was needed to meet a reliability need in 2018 and that this tight timeline made it impossible to first compare Carlsbad with clean energy alternatives.”

Included in the Center’s suit is a statement by the lone CPUC dissenter, Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, that the approved power purchase agreement “cannot rest on any asserted need to address [once thorough cooled power plant] retirements as that need was met more than a year earlier through the approval of the Pio Pico contract.”

In early 2014, the commission approved a SDG&E agreement to buy 300 MW from the Pio Pico gas project after initially rejecting it. The closure of the Encina coastal power plant is not yet set. It is required to close by the end of 2017 under the state’s mandated phase out of coastal water-cooled power plants. –Elizabeth McCarthy

What They’re Saying: “The last thing we need is another dirty power plant polluting our air and water and destroying highly biodiverse and beautiful wildlife habitat.” April Rose Sommer, the Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney.

“The PUC should not be able to get away with contradicting its own clean energy objectives.” Will Rostov, Earthjustice attorney representing the Sierra Club.