Massive demo Nov. 9th at PG&E announced

I have to be a bit skeptical here. Watching the plumes from those power plants they appear to be well clear of the neighborhood (1000+ feet up). I've been to parties that happened almost next to the plant and didn't smell anything at all.

I'd like to see direct evidence showing that smoke is descending into these
neighborhoods before spending money to fix a problem that may not exist.
CA is still not necessarily out of the woods on the power crisis, taking a
gigawatt offline isn't something that should be taken lightly. Remember there
are people who depend on electric power for life support.

Lets spend the money on alternative power instead, lets not just go and
replace that plant with another fossil fuel burning plant in someone elses
backyard. Then when its finally shut down it can be shutdown for the right
reason, global warming and air pollution further inland where the plume
actually does finally reach ground level.

Of course if there is direct evidence that the plume reachs the local
neighborhood in unhealthy amounts thats a different matter. But I
suspect you will find that auto exhaust completely buries any residual
power plant emissions that may reach ground level.

The evidence is in EPA and PG&E public files. For just a taste of the immense volume of pollution data, check out http://www.scorecard.org/community/index.tcl?zip_code=94107

See especially http://www.scorecard.org/community/cmy-cap-who.tcl?fips_county_code=06075&name=SAN%20FRANCISCO&zip_code=94107&pollutant=nox

In San Francisco, mobile sources of pollution (cars, trucks, etc.) are a bigger pollution problem than point sources (such as power plants). But the facts also show us that -

* San Francisco is the worst in the entire state of California for the average individual's added cancer and noncancer risks due to hazardous air pollutants - see
http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/hap/rank-counties.tcl?drop_down_name=Noncancer+cumulative+hazard+index&fips_state_code=06 and http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/hap/rank-counties.tcl?drop_down_name=Average+individual%27s+added+cancer+risk&fips_state_code=06

* The poor face a higher risk of exposure to pollutants than the rich - see http://www.scorecard.org/community/ej-summary.tcl?fips_county_code=06075#dist

We should, therefore, be vigilant in fighting pollution sources in our own neighborhoods. Not so they move to someone else's neighborhood, but so that they are replaced with clean and sustainable alternatives.