December 19, 2012: On December 11, the Redondo Beach Board of Education decided to consider a resolution to oppose the rebuilding of the AES Redondo Beach power plant (left). (AES is a global power generation and distribution firm.) According to Nicole Mooradian, writing in the Redondo Beach Patch, the power plant has to be retired, rebuilt or exempted from a new ban on the process of "once-through cooling" by 2020. AES has filed plans with the California Energy Commission to build a new, smaller plant; these plans have been met with community resistance. Opponents filled the board meeting to express their concerns.
...activists pointed to studies showing the impact of fine particulate matter on health, including the development of autism, asthma and heart disease. School board members were divided as to whether they should take a position on the efforts to rebuild the power plant.
...AES Southland president Eric Pendergraft, at left, told the board that building a new plant would provide more funding for the school district from the new property tax assessments; a new power plant would indirectly create jobs because it produces electricity; and that the new plant would run more efficiently than the current one.
School board vice president Laura Emdee said... "I have to let people do their job, and it seems to me if that agency doesn't believe that this power plant is viable or necessary, then that's the agency's [decision]," she said. "If I was to choose whether or not there was a power plant in our city, the answer would be, 'No'...' … I'm willing to go look at a resolution, but I'm more willing to just put a bit of faith in the energy commission."
Written by: Taylor McCulloch
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