Blog: AES' Slick Marketing Machine Is Engaged

Many Redondo residents received a slick propaganda mailer from AES extolling the virtues of their new plant.  The mailer includes a response card. Above is what one resident sent us—obviously, she didn’t buy what AES was trying to sell….

The letter with the slick mailer claims we need the new plant because of our electric cars and iPads. Are you kidding me? Are they really trying to say we should build a new plant to power iPads?????? Let’s dig a little deeper.

If every single person in LA County had an iPad and only could power them, the new plant would have to run at less than 3 percent of capacity to make the power needed to charge all those iPads. A single 60-watt fluorescent bulb uses about 15 percent more electricity annually than an iPad based on average household usage. And the average PC uses about 20x more power than an iPad in a year.

The California Energy Commission has already shown that projecting out to 2020, the peak demand for all electric vehicles will be less than the decreases in peak demand due to more efficient buildings and appliances. Heck, even the power from residential rooftop solar would produce more peak hour power than all the electric vehicle peak hour demand. This is largely due to the fact that most EV’s are charged after peak hours when there is an excess of power capacity.

In actuality, per capita power consumption has decreased in the last few years, partly due to the recession and partly due to more efficient appliances. Using iPads in place of PCs lowers power consumption. Replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescent lights has contributed to lower consumption. And new washers, dryers and refrigerators are more efficient than those they replace. It is not rocket science.

iPads and electric cars do not drive the need for a new power plant in Redondo. Grid forecasts by state agencies show we do not need the plant at all. Two independent power experts came to the same conclusion. Our plant has run at about 5 to 7 percent capacity in recent years. In 2008 for example, it provided less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the state’s power needs. We don’t need it, but we pay for it to sit idle a vast majority of the time.

AES tries to use pollution numbers from the entire LA basin to show how little pollution they will contribute. What a smokescreen—forgive the pun. A South Coast Air Quality Management District representative testified to city council that the bulk of our local air pollution in Redondo Beach is from Pacific Coast Highway and the AES power plant. That is because our prevailing winds are from the ocean. He also stated a static source like a power plant is more impactful than mobile sources like traffic. These are the guys paid by the state to do nothing but watch our air quality. They should know.

AES conveniently leaves out that they plan for the new plant to run between 5x and 8x the amount the current plant runs (in annual capacity equivalence). Judging from the environmetal reports for the brand new El Segundo power plant currently under construction, that means we will suffer about 5x more particulate pollution than AES has reported in recent years from the current plant. Oh, and they forgot to put in the mailer that they want to be permitted at 15x the recent annual run capacity rates of the current plant. Oops. 

Yes, pollution from the AES power plant is a direct and adverse impact on our community. Long term exposure to particulate matter kills more people in California than breast cancer.

And don’t get me going about the convenient view perspectives they choose to show us. There is always a conveniently located group of trees, or it is from way, way, way back in the harbor. Where is the view from a condo across Herondo?  Where is the view from Catalina between the post office the the Tech Center?  Where is the view from a Tech Center office? Where is the view from a residential room at the ? Show us how 30-foot-tall mini-storage is going to hide an 80-foot power plant and 120-foot smokestacks.

At least they have backed off their statement at the November city council meeting that their 80-foot-high new plant would be hidden from most views. The only way to hide the plant at this site is to bury it. 

Let the residents beware the claims of AES as they try to peddle us their snake oil!