Sunday, October 11, 2009

Biodiesel Comes To Pacifica!



6 comments:

Pacifica Penny Pincher said...

What did this little failed experiment cost the taxpayers of Pacifica? $100,000.00? Sure could of gone a long way towards our failing infrastructure or emergency services! sigh...

Kathy Meeh said...

Probably closer to $500,000. 4 years in planning (according to Nancy Hall), concrete pad laid down for the foundation, $135,000 to WEF, studies, city staff time involvement, non-public consent and public consideration, any modifications to the WWTP, staff time involvement, Coastal Commission review, legal, letters to agencies, agency financial penalties, repair of area including diggings and broken pipes, etc.

The city chose a company to do the job that never even build a stand-alone biodiesel plant, much less a rare integration. And the second "qualification" included a weak financial profile. Councilmember Vreeland and Nancy Hall deserve all the credit on this one-- and our city council of 8 years approved this, brilliant!

Jeffrey W Simons said...

Bogus EIR addendum + lack of public notification + skipping Planning Commission review + shameless shill by Vreeland at the Coastal Commission = company that thought it was above the law and dug an illegal trench to beat a CARB deadline for $$$.

This is what happens when pet projects usurp the public process. Many of us said for months this would happen, so the city had no excuse except for hubris to stick the taxpayers with the bill for their ignorance.

Unknown said...

Truly, after the financial woes the City has been suffering for years, it was unconscionable for the Council to continue the fiasco of the bio-diesel plant and spend money without having the information whether or not Whole Energy could afford to do this project. Not having a contract that would give Pacifica some of the profit if it did succeed was silly. Who was responsible for the contract that allowed all this money to be spent without reimbursement? I know that the group opposed to the plant was ignored as much as possible with the “we know what is best for you” attitude that prevails in all politics. Will there be a reckoning over this?

Bruce Hotchkiss said...

But if you owned an old, beat up, worn out, diesel powered piece of crap it sure looked like a great investment. I mean c'mon, where else would you be able to get someone else to pay for your "saving the earth?" Instead of actually paying hard cash for a new, fuel efficient, low emissions vehicle, they got US to pay for a plan that would benefit them.

So in that spirit, anyone want to buy me a Prius?

Steve Sinai said...

OK, I supported this, since I thought the rent money Whole Energy would pay to the city would help. So spank me.

I think it was the economy that killed the project more than anything else. This was the one time I trusted the city to do something that would help us economically, but the whole thing was run so amateurishly by the city and Whole Energy that it will take a hell of a lot of convincing to get me to support any kind of a city-proposed "public-private partnership" in the future. The city had it's chance, and it blew it.