PINE TREE WIND PACTS OK'D CONTRACTS AWARDED FOR 'GREEN POWER' PROJECT.Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer Calling it ``our baby,'' the panel overseeing the Department of Water and Power moved forward Tuesday with the Pine Tree Wind Project, approving a pair of environmental and construction deals related to the $278 million initiative. The venture has been held up as an example of both the promise and peril associated with the growing use of ``green power,'' which is one of the top priorities of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's new Board of Water and Power Commissioners. First approved in 2003, Pine Tree has been touted as a unique initiative for a public utility that would promote clean air by reducing the city's reliance on polluting pol·lute tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. power sources. However, the project timeline has ballooned to 5 1/2 years amid problems including lawsuits and local opposition. The items approved Tuesday include a $239 million deal with Wind Turbine Prometheus and an environmental mitigation monitoring agreement with Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County. ``We're moving forward step by step and committed to see this be a success,'' said Commission President Mary Nichols, a former state resources chief and head of the UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX Institute for the Environment. The Pine Tree project will supply Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. with power from 80 giant wind turbines in the southern Sierra Nevada Sierra Nevada, mountain range, Spain Sierra Nevada (syā`rä nāvä`thä), chief mountain range of S Spain, in Granada prov., running from east to west for c.60 mi (100 km), parallel to the Mediterranean Sea. Mountains. The project was originally slated to start generating power in July 2004, but the completion date is now 2007. Officials cite obstacles like local concerns about project impacts and a still-pending lawsuit by the Audubon Society relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the wind farm's possible threat to birds. While the challenges are significant, DWP DWP Department of Work and Pensions (UK) DWP Drinking Water Program DWP Dynamic Weapon Pricing (gamin, Counter-Strike: Source) DWP Department of Water & Power DWP Drinking Water Protection officials are counting on Pine Tree to move the department closer to its goal of having a 20 percent renewable power portfolio while reducing CO2 emissions by more than 200,000 tons a year. Under the deals approved Tuesday, Wind Turbine Prometheus will develop and construct the wind turbine facilities and the city will acquire ownership at the end of the project. Meanwhile, the board approved an agreement with Kern County aimed at securing a necessary zoning change to allow construction in exchange for the monitoring of environmental effects. Rhonda Mills of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies told the commission that her organization and other like-minded environmental groups support the project. The model of a public utility having a contractor build a project and then taking ownership itself is a good one that the DWP should consider as it pursues more green power initiatives, she said. ``As you move forward in the next few weeks determining what your portfolio will look like, whether it's owned or bought, looking back at how you got here today from four years ago will be a useful, if not mandatory exercise,'' she said. Also on Tuesday, Villaraigosa said the city will construct a transmission line to deliver renewable into the city in a partnership with the nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. Citizens Energy and the Imperial Irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. District. The mayor planned to give more details of the plan at an event with DWP officials today in North Hollywood. Dan Laidman, (213) 978-0390 dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 maps Map: (1 -- 2) Pine Tree Wind Project Daily News |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion