By Julie BUTCHER

“Go green or go home!” State Senator Anthony Portantino addressed the crowd at a rally organized on Saturday by the Glendale Environmental Coalition at Glendale city hall. “People power is what got us here. So, thank all of you for what you do.”

Approximately 100 people, including many young people and kids, showed up on a very sunny afternoon, calling on the city council to reject Glendale Water and Power’s (GWP) plans to include gas power as it rebuilds the Grayson Power Plant.

“Thirty years ago, you could never see the mountains. Because of people like you, now we can,” Portantino urged. “We want an energy policy for the next 100 years that serves our grandchildren, not just us.” The crowd cheered in response.

Carol Henning, Sierra Club Verdugo Hills Group Conservation chair, summed up the history of the plant and the proposed project, along with the group’s position on it.

“The plant, named after Glendale’s first engineer and general manager Loren Grayson, was constructed beginning in 1939 as a city owned-and-operated steam powered electrical generating facility. Grayson is located near San Fernando Road and Flower, not far from where the Golden State Freeway meets the Ventura Freeway. It sits beside the LA River, across from the John Ferraro Athletic Fields in Griffith Park. Because of its age and because it had been running for a long time with little renovation it was time for a makeover.

“The 2017 Grayson Repowering Project was a plan to replace existing natural gas burning equipment with new gas burning equipment with 262 megawatts (MW) of energy capacity. This plan was rejected by the Glendale City Council in April 2018. Glendale residents, joined by environmental groups such as the Glendale Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Club, held meetings, wrote letters, demonstrated and testified at Glendale City Council meetings. In April 2018, the City Council rejected the Grayson Repowering Plan.

“In July 2019, the City Council conditionally approved an integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and an energy portfolio with 93 MW of gas-burning and 75 MG of battery storage at Grayson. This was to be accompanied by clean energy projects, such as demand-response, energy efficiency, solar, battery storage and transmission, into Glendale. The goal was to achieve, or come close to, 100% clean energy by 2030. However, by the end of 2021, it was clear that GWP had not fully explored more clean energy alternatives. Instead, the Glendale City Council will be offered two choices: 93 MW from five new internal combustion engine units, or 101 MW from refurbishing two existing Grayson turbines. Environmental groups – the Glendale Environmental Coalition, Earth Justice and the Sierra Club – ask that GWP neither install nor refurbish gas burning equipment until all possible clean-energy solutions have been explored.”

The local Sierra Club is organizing against any new gas at Grayson: https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/stop-new-gas-at-grayson.

Dog dads of a pup named Gator live and work near Grayson; they attended the rally as they “prefer there not be more pollution. It’s short-sighted to build gas, especially if the city wants to sell excess power to other cities.”

Dr. Jackie Gish and others from the Glenoaks Homeowners Association turned out on Saturday to advocate for clean energy solutions as well as to protest the council’s decision to build a power plant at Scholl Canyon to capture and use gas from the landfill. The group has filed a lawsuit against the city, Gish said.

Councilmember Ara Najarian told the Crescenta Valley Weekly that he was there “to listen and learn.”

“I’m open-minded. I want to see if I hear something new, something I haven’t heard in briefings from the GEC and the Sierra Club. That’s the most important thing, for me, until it’s time to vote,” he said.

Councilmembers Ardy Kassakhian and Dan Brotman were also in attendance.

On Jan. 31, the GWP commission voted unanimously to approve the final environmental impact report and recommend Alternative 7 to the full council, which is anticipated to vote on GWP’s plans on Tuesday, Feb. 15.

GWP’s report to the commission explained the updated plans including Alternative 7: “From the Clean Energy RFP, GWP developed two new, reduced-size, greener project alternatives. These two alternatives are identified in the partially-recirculated draft environmental impact report as ‘Alternative 7’ and ‘Alternative 8.’

Both of these alternatives include about 95MW of thermal generation and 75MW/300MWH of battery energy storage. Both are compliant with SCAQMD emissions limits, with 60% less energy generation capacity, and 90% less fuel usage than the project.

“Alternative 7 – Tesla/Wartsila Repowering:

• Adds 75MW/300MWH of battery energy storage
• Removes all existing units except unit 9 (the newest unit, built in 2003)
• Adds five Wartsila 18.6MW internal combustion engine generators – about 93MWs total
• Adds a new switching station to add resiliency to the GWP system”

The full report is available at https://tinyurl.com/2p9druys.

On Saturday, an organizer with the Sunrise Movement yelled to the crowd, “What do we want?”

“Clean energy!” the crowd responded.

“When do we want it?”

“Now!”

“And if we don’t get it, we’ll shut it down!” the organizer led the chant. “Shut it down!”