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Coastal panel delays power plant hearing
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More from Local NewsThe California Coastal Commission has put off, for at least a month, a hearing on whether to overturn an Oxnard City Council decision and allow Southern California Edison to build a peaker power plant at Mandalay Beach.
The commission was set to vote on the proposal today at its meeting in Marina del Rey. But in response to a letter from a local member of the Sierra Club, the commission put off the matter, according to Chris Williamson, a planner with the city of Oxnard.
The letter, from Alan Sanders, conservation chairman of Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club, says that a Coastal Commission staff review of Edisons plan didnt take into account the California Environmental Quality Act.
The commission has failed to engage in meaningful impact analysis or to consider alternatives and cumulative impacts, Sanders says in his letter.
The Oxnard City Council denied Edisons plans to build the $50 million, natural-gas fired, 45-megawatt power plant next to Reliant Energys 430-megawatt plant on Harbor Boulevard.
According to city officials, the power plant does not conform with the local Coastal Plan, because it isnt ocean-dependent. But Williamson said if the project did conform with zoning rules, the city would have required a full Environmental Impact Report.
Among the impacts the city would have wanted investigated were aesthetics and air pollution.
— From staff reports
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