Update: Santee Power Plant Critics Planning Protest Rally on Monday

Updated at 9:35 p.m. March 8, 2012

Opponents of the Quail Brush Generation Project are planning a three-hour rally Monday at Mast Boulevard and West Hills Parkway near the site of the proposed power plant.

“Numerous poisons will spew from the smokestacks, including a projected 50 tons of … carbon monoxide, the silent killer, per year,” said a statement by the Committee to Stop the Santee Power Plant, which has a Facebook page.

The rally—set for 6 to 9 a.m.*—aims to “alert the residents of East County, and those in San Carlos, Tierrasanta and Grantville area of San Diego of the immediate dangers of the proposed power plant.”

The plant would be just north of the westbound entrance to state Route 52 off Mast Boulevard near Mission Trails Regional Park.

Opponents dispute assertions by applicant Cogentrix, a North Carolina company, that the plant would be a “peaker plant” operating at only 43 percent power.

“Cogentrix admits that it would operate at about 58 percent [power] … when it comes on line or shortly thereafter,” the committee says.

Stop the Santee Power Plant is demanding that the California Energy Commission evaluate the project at 100 percent usage.

The committee says it has contacted more than 2,000 affected residents in recent days and has petitions with hundreds of opponents of the plant demanding the CEC consider the plant at 100 percent usage.

According to the CEC, the 100-megawatt project “would support SDG&E's efforts to increase reliance on wind, solar and other renewable energy resources. It would also provide peaking and load-shaping power to the grid, along with several ancillary services intended to assure system reliability within the SDG&E service area.”

For more information or background see the CEC website. For more information about the protest movement, see Stopthesanteepowerplant.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the rally was from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.