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American Morning

Blackout Forecasts in California

Aired May 21, 2001 - 10:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A plan to deal with California's power woes may have residents listening for blackout forecasts. The keeper of the state's power grid is expected to release an outline today on how it might work. The idea is to alert people of planned blackouts before they happen. But critics say that could attract criminals to the outage areas and possibly make the state legally liable. The planned blackout suggestions come amid concerns power prices will keep rising this summer.

California's energy crisis has led to fast track approval on an aging power plant's massive expansion. And although environmentalists worry about the plant's impact on the habitat, they still support the project.

CNN's Rusty Dornin has more on this partnership from Moss Landing, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An aging giant known as the Mighty Moss -- the 50-year-old moss landing natural gas plant along California's coast owned by Duke Energy. A face-lift and an expansion will soon make this the largest power generator in the state, providing 2.3 million homes with light, heat and air conditioning.

But all that power takes water to cool the turbines -- water that's home to otters, fish, herons and other wildlife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day Duke will use 333 football size fields pools of water that are 10 feet deep. That is just incomprehensible.

DORNIN: Water from the wetlands run through the plant, returning to the ocean 30 degrees warmer. It's been that way for 50 years. Now environmentalists worry that increasing the intake will sterilize any creature sucked in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything that lives in that volume of water -- eggs from fish, from clams, diatoms, young fish -- everything in it will be killed.

DORNIN: Environmentalists say the Mighty Moss got a break on the approval process as regulators here faced the state's energy crisis. It took 14 months. Permitting for smaller plants in the state is down to 21 days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so fast that my concern is we wouldn't even catch really obvious problems because we just are not taking a hard look at these plants at all.

DORNIN: But here's the twist. As part of the permit process, local environmental groups signed off on the Mighty Moss renovation plan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sort of at the 11th hour, we were able to work out this deal with Duke to at least insure that the scientific monitoring would go on.

DORNIN (on camera): Duke Energy will spend more than $8 million expanding the wetland and in donations to local environmental groups. There will also be an independent monitor who will assess any damage to the environment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this will more than compensate any potential effects the new power plant will have on the habitat. I mean this state's in an energy crisis. The new plant we're bringing on is cleaner, more efficient than virtually any plant in the country today.

DORNIN: Environmentalists made a deal here, but many fear in a power hungry state, taking what they can get may be their only option.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Moss Landing, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In the nation's energy problems, there's some relief in sight at the pump. A national survey finds gas prices are leveling off. The Lundberg Survey says the average price for a gallon of gasoline increased just under a penny over the past two weeks. Analysts say increased supplies are responsible. Prices had risen $0.29 a gallon over the past two months.

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