Air District Joins Criticism of Utilities’ Merger Plan

Los Angeles air quality officials have added their voices to the chorus arguing that smog in Southern California will get much worse if Southern California Edison merges with San Diego Gas & Electric.

The proposed merger “has the potential to generate significant adverse air quality impacts” in the South Coast Air Basin as a result of Edison’s plan to shift electric power generating from San Diego to the Los Angeles area, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said in a letter to the state Public Utilities Commission dated Monday and released Friday.

The AQMD reached its conclusions while commenting on the PUC’s draft environmental impact report, which was prepared as part of the PUC’s deliberations on the proposed $2.5-billion merger. The AQMD joins several other critics, including the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District, the city of San Diego, state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and pollution control officers in Ventura County.

The Los Angeles air-quality district also questioned the adequacy of the PUC’s environmental report--especially the conclusion that the merger would result in net reductions of smog in Southern California. Last month, the San Diego air district filed testimony with the PUC that raised similar questions. The district will file a formal response next week to the draft environmental impact report.

“Net emissions increases will occur in three of the four air basins analyzed, with the most significant increases occurring in the South Coast Air Basin,” wrote Barry R. Wallerstein, the AQMD’s director of planning. That basin includes Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties and the urban portions of San Bernardino County.

The AQMD called for further study of the merger’s air-quality effects, including possibly the preparation of a supplemental environmental impact report, said Jack Broadbent, the agency’s planning manager.

“We feel that the EIR does not adequately address the air-quality impacts in a number of areas,” he said.

Under the proposed merger, Edison would shift generation of electricity from older San Diego power plants to more efficient Edison plants in the Los Angeles area. However, some San Diegans fear that Edison will attempt to reduce smog in the Los Angeles area by increasing use of SDG&E;’s gas and oil-burning power plants.

“In a nutshell, the major problem with the EIR is that it underestimates the cost of eliminating the added pollution that would be caused by the merger,” said Michael Shames, executive director of Utility Consumers Action Network, a San Diego-based consumer group. “That significantly reduces the merger savings (for customers) claimed by the utilities.”

Meanwhile, Edison sent its own letter to the PUC this week, arguing that the EIR overstated the air and water effects of the proposed merger. Edison added that any effects could be overcome “at a cost that will not appreciably diminish the financial benefits of the merger.” The EIR estimated that it would cost about $65 million to mitigate the effects, a figure Edison disputes.

“As we have previously said, we are talking with the (South Coast Air Quality Management) district, and we are quite confident we can reach an agreement with the district,” Edison spokesman Lewis M. Phelps said Friday.

In its comments, the AQMD specifically cited concerns over possible increases in the levels of nitrogen oxide, a precursor of ozone in smog, and sulfur oxide, another pollutant. Los Angeles is the only area in the nation that still violates federal standards for nitrogen oxide, the district said.

Edison’s electrical generating plants are already the single largest producers of nitrogen oxides in the South Coast Air Basin.

Increased smog in Los Angeles is a serious concern for San Diegans because smog blown into San Diego County from Los Angeles’ air basin was responsible for 41 of the 55 days last year when San Diego was in violation of federal ozone standards.

When the draft environmental impact report was released in April, Paul Downey, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said, “This has long been a fight for local control over our utility’s future. Basically, San Diego would be subjected to the whims of (Edison’s) bureaucrats sitting up in Rosemead. It’s saying, ‘If L.A. has a smoggy day, so will we.’ ”

The Los Angeles-area pollution control agency’s letter about environmental impacts of the proposed merger was similar to comments made in April by Rich Sommerville, San Diego County’s air pollution control officer.

Sommerville, who was not available for comment Friday, previously said that he was “skeptical of (Edison’s) assumption that it can shift energy generation to the heavily polluted Los Angeles Basin. . . . The scenario that the South Coast Air Quality Management District will allow more emissions and make their air more polluted just doesn’t wash.”

The period for comment on the draft expired this week; the PUC is aiming at a ruling on the merger by early next year.

Preparation of a supplement to the report, as proposed by the South Coast AQMD, could delay the process several more months.