To the Editor:

I am a democrat who usually votes for democrats, but I will gladly vote to recall Gov. Gray Davis. His energy policy has been particularly unkind to San José residents, and it’s payback time.

In late 2000, Mayor Gonzales and the City Council unanimously rejected Calpine’s plan to build a huge 600-megawatt power plant in Coyote Valley, adjacent to a densely populated residential neighborhood. Then, just a few weeks later, we had our first rotating blackout.

Davis panicked. He publicly urged his appointees on the California Energy Commission to override the City of San José, which they did. “I want to see the Metcalf Energy Center built,” Davis said.

We now know that the energy shortage was artificial. Energy companies like Calpine, Enron, and El Paso manipulated the market. There is no compelling reason to build Calpine’s power plant in Coyote Valley, but it is being built anyway, and Davis doesn’t seem to care. That is what makes me so angry, and what makes me so anxious to vote him out of office.

Davis and his CEC harmed all San José residents. Davis’s decision to build the plant led to the messy street project on Monterey Highway and Silver Creek. This pipeline will send millions of gallons of treated sewer water to the plant, where it will be boiled off. This will cause dangerous levels of particulate matter pollution (PM10) to fall on the adjacent neighborhood. And the local taxpayers have to pay for this $20 million project, not Calpine!

Davis admits he has made some mistakes. I think this is his biggest, and I hope it leads to his recall.

Sincerely,
Robert Wilson