Power plant retrofit plans look likely to hurdle challenges

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A $260 million project that will make California the home of the latest new fossil fuel power plant went before a judge Thursday, with environmentalists claiming that officials failed to conduct the necessary environmental review.

"The current plant is awful," said attorney Byron Chan of Earthjustice, referring to the Grayson Power Plant in Glendale, which is set to be retrofitted with five new gas-powered aerators, along with a Tesla battery storage system.

"The new one would be just bad. It’s still a fossil fuel burning power plant," Chan continued. "It’s still a power plant that’s releasing toxins into the air."

Chan represents the Sierra Club, which is behind one of the challenges up for consideration in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Judge Curtis Kin issued a tentative ruling that he would likely deny the group's challenge under the California Environmental Quality Act, but he did not issue any decisions on the challenge by the other group. Glendale Residents Against Environmental Destruction say the environmental review ignored the historically significance of one of the power plant's buildings.

Glendale touted the advantages from the new plant in a brief, saying it will reduce emissions, improve air quality and help the city make better use of renewable energy sources.

"This is because quick-start, reliable backup power and battery energy storage together enable the city to increase use of intermittent renewable energy sources and to shift imports from fossil fuel sources to renewable energy sources," the brief states.

Glendale is trying to transition to 100% clean energy by 2045.

For its proponents, natural gas is considered an important "bridge fuel" that can help regions meet their energy needs without resorting to coal or oil on high-demand days, when solar panels and wind mills may be unable to produce enough power. Many environmental groups meanwhile dispute the characterization of natural gas as clean, as it is still a source of air pollution and a driver of climate change.

The Grayson plant is located near Glendale's border with Los Angeles, sitting at the confluence of both Interstate 5 and state Route 134, as well as the Los Angeles River and the Verdugo Wash. It also, as the Sierra Club pointed out in its complaint, sits within a mile of at least four public schools and four child care centers.

Grayson was built in 1941, and today its units are between 76 and 40 years old. Without the project, Glendale has argued, "the city will not have sufficient sources of power to meet energy demand and maintain sufficient power reserves on the hottest days of the year."

The Glendale City Council rejected an earlier proposal to retrofit the plant in 2018 for being overly reliant on fossil fuels.

In February 2022, the City Council approved, by a narrow 3-2 vote, the newer version of the project, which the city says is the “environmentally superior alternative."

But the Sierra Club says that the "oversized project" produces more power than necessary — enough for Glendale Water and Power "to sell excess energy to neighboring regions during periods of peak demand."

It says the project's environmental justice impact assessment was incorrectly limited to city of Glendale's borders, even though the plant is located blocks from Los Angeles. It also says the review "fails to analyze foreseeable impacts of the project from burning hydrogen," which the environmental review considers as a future possibility.

In his tentative ruling, Judge Kin sided with the city of Glendale. The judge emphasized the city's agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to keep a certain amount of energy in reserves for high-demand days. Kin said that the new project will allow the plant to maintain that level of power, and that Glendale Water and Power "did not conceal any intention to sell excess energy" in its environmental review.

As for the failure of Glendale's environmental justice impact assessment to go beyond the city of Glendale, Kin noted that the project would "result in a net reduction of existing emissions." In any case, the judge noted, the Environmental Quality Act doesn't mandate an environmental justice review. He also found "the evidence of the potential for hydrogen cited by Sierra Club" to be "speculative."

The court also heard arguments in the challenge filed by Glendale Residents Against Environmental Destruction, who have argued that Glendale incorrectly signed off on the power plant's environmental review without first hearing from the city's Historic Preservation Commission.

"The Boiler Building was designed by architect Daniel A. Elliot, A.I.A., in the Streamline Moderne architectural style," the group said in their petition. "It was heralded as the world’s first earthquake-proof power plant."

Plans to retrofit the plant call for the building to be destroyed. Susan Brandt-Hawley, a lawyer for the challengers, called the boiler building a "historic resource" and said the environmental review should have considered alternatives that protect it.

"The key to CEQA is, look before you leap," said Brandt-Hawley. "They can’t approve the project if there are feasible mitigation measures."

Glendale's attorney Michael Zischke cited municipal code, which says the Historic Preservation Commission is supposed to weigh in after the environmental review is certified. At that point it can either approve or deny a permit to demolish a building.

After a roughly two-hour hearing, the judge took the matter under submission.

"It would seem there’s not prohibition on the commission being heard for after the EIR certification, unless it would result in something entirely absurd or wholly unreasonable," Kin said. Although he later added: "it seems a little odd that a historic preservation commission could deny a demolition from occurring."

Follow @hillelaron

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit