HomeMy WebLinkAbout83-120 - Hydroelectric ProjectsRESOLUTION NO. 83 -120
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA IN SUPPORT
OF RELICENSING FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY
COMMISSION PROJECTS 1388 and 1389, HYDROELECTRIC
PROJECTS, TO THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON
COMPANY
WHEREAS, hydroelectric projects, owned and operated by Southern
• California Edison Company (SCE), have utilized and developed our nation's
natural resources, spreading the benefits of this low -cost electricity
to millions of Californians; and
WHEREAS, SCE has over the past century developed a safe, reliable,
and economic system of hydroelectric generating facilities dedicated to the
use and benefit of more than an area population of over nine million people;
and
WHEREAS, certain of these hydroelectric facilities, consisting of
projects licensed by the Federal Power Commission, now known as the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), are subject to consideration for
relicensing by FERC; and
WHEREAS, certain municipal entities are endeavoring to secure for
themselves two SCE hydroelectric powerplants, which efforts, if successful,
would result in the transfer of ownership and operation of these hydro-
electric facilities from SCE, and would divert low cost power away from
millions of Central and Southern California customers for the benefit of
a few thousand served by the municipal entities, and
WHEREAS, it would be directly contrary both to the best interest
of the residents of the City of Newport Beach and to the best interest of
the millions of other residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial
customers served by SCE whose rates have supported the ownership and opera-
tion of these hydroelectric facilities, were FERC to remove from the
hydroelectric generating systems of SCE the following facilities:
1. SCE Rush Creek Project (Project No. 1389), which is
located near June Lake on the eastern slope of the
• Sierra Nevada about sixty miles north of Bishop, California.
2. SCE Poole Project (Project No. 1388), which is located on
Lee Vining Creek also north of Bishop; and
WHEREAS, if any of these projects were to be transferred to the
municipal entities seeking them, the customers served by SCE would be forced
to pay, every year, increased power costs for electricity from oil or gas
fired generating facilities; and
WHEREAS, the continued ownership, operation, and improvement of
their hydroelectric generating facilities by SCE.is essential to the public
interest and to the social and economic well -being of central and southern
California consumers;
NOW, _THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City
• of Newport
Beach hereby urges and .requests that the
Federal
Energy
Regulatory
Commission
relicense these hydroelectric facilities
to SCE,
and to
reject the
applications of the municipal agencies seeking to take the benefits of
projects away from the millions of customers served by SCE; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Newport
Beach hereby requests that all hearings concerning hydroelectric relicensing
applications by SCE be conducted in the service territory where the projects
are located and where the public they were built to serve lives and works;
and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City.Council supports proposed
legislation to amend the Federal Power Act .so as not to allow municipal
preference treatment during the relicensing of hydroelectric facilities; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution be provided to:
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
The California Public Utilities Commission,
Appropriate members of the United States Congress
Appropriate members of the California Legislature
and the Southern California Edison Company.
PASSED AND ADOPTED THIS 14thday of November 1983.
ATTEST:
City Clerk of the City of Newport Beach
Mayor of he City of Newport Beach