For those at last night's CEC meeting at Martin Murphy School who are wondering about the CEC's assessment of need for the Metcalf Energy Center, here is the boilerplate used by the CEC for all power plants now being reviewed. This is from the CEC Preliminary Staff Assessment for the Delta Energy Center proposed by Calpine and Bechtel:

"NEED CONFORMANCE CRITERION

In order to obtain a license from the Energy Commission, a proposed power plant must be found to be in conformance with the Integrated Assessment of Need. The criterion governing this determination is contained in the 1996 Electricity Report (ER 96), and is most succinctly described on page 72 of that document:

"In sum, the ER 96 need criterion is this: during the period when ER 96 is applicable, proposed power plants shall be found in conformance with the Integrated Assessment of Need (IAN) as long as the total number of Megawatts permitted does not exceed 6,737."

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Commission adopted ER 96 on November 5, 1997. Delta was found data adequate on July 29, 1998. ER 96 is the most recently adopted Electricity Report and because it was adopted prior to the Delta Application for Certification being found data adequate, the need conformance criterion of ER 96 applies to the Delta project. Staff therefore evaluated the project based on the ER 96 Need Conformance Criterion. The Delta Energy Center shall be in conformance with the ER 96 integrated assessment of need as long as the total number of megawatts permitted under ER 96, including this project�s capacity, if approved, does not exceed 6,737 at the time of project approval."

What this basically says is the CEC cannot consider whether or not a power plant makes sense on a regional basis. Since the California State Legislature has tied the hands of the CEC is this matter, the burden of creating a rational energy policy for the City of San Jose falls directly on the shoulders of the City Council since they must approve the land use changes.