Oct. 20--The latest skirmish in the battle over whether a 558-megawatt power plant will be built in Carlsbad is set for Tuesday when the City Council considers a proposed moratorium on new power plants in its coastal areas.

"We think it's important that the city express its opinion on the power plant (project) and the appropriateness of the location of the power plant," said Joe Garuba, a city of Carlsbad employee handling power plant issues.

While the City Council is expected to unanimously back the proposal at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at City Hall, the moratorium may not carry any weight with the state Energy Commission.

"These (city) resolutions, past, present or future, do not change the Warren-Alquist Act," commission spokesman Percy Della said Monday. "The Warren-Alquist Act allowed the state to override the cities on power plant concerns."

Passed in 1974, the act created the state Energy Commission and gave it regulatory control over power plant projects that would produce more than 50 megawatts of electricity.

The Carlsbad project, which was submitted to the state in 2007, calls for building a 558-megawatt plant on the eastern edge of the 95-acre Encina Power Station property. The new equipment, which would include two 139-foot-tall smokestacks, would provide enough power to meet the needs of about 400,000 homes.

The project would be built between the railroad tracks and Interstate 5, an area where giant storage tanks now stand. The plant's owner, NRG Energy Inc., has indicated that this project, plus a second one at a later date in the same area, would eventually allow it to tear down the huge, aging power plant on the western edge of the Encina property.

City officials have argued that there's no guarantee that the old plant will ever come down. Plus, they have said, the time has come to move such projects away from coastal areas altogether.

Garuba said Monday that the moratorium would allow the city to continue to update its general plan, a citywide document that spells out how land in Carlsbad will be used.

If passed, the moratorium would go into effect immediately and last for 45 days, he said. In early December, the council would host a public hearing to determine whether to continue the moratorium.

About 40 percent of Carlsbad falls within the coastal region that would be covered by the proposed moratorium, he said.

Carlsbad officials know that the state can override the moratorium, but having it in place would force the state to seek an overriding interest declaration, Garuba said.

"At least we can say we did everything we could," he added.

State commission staff are expected to issue an assessment of the Carlsbad power plant project later this month or in early November. Eventually, the state commissioners will vote on the project.

For agenda information, visit: www.carlsbadca.gov/CITYHALL/MEETINGS/Pages/default.aspx.

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