Public Power Grab

Board president Peskin, who will be termed out next year, is in favor of leaving the diesel plant in place. "There's a third possibility, which is do nothing," he said. "That is not as crazy as it sounds." Blocking Sklar's favored Potrero retrofit idea would create momentum for phasing out all city-based power generation, he suggested: "Those things are going to die their own natural death long before the retrofitted ones would, or, for that matter, before the new combustion turbines would stop running."

Doing nothing also leaves open the option of renewing the fight over whether to build a new $270 million gas-fired powered plant. "Let's assume they can bring everything to a shit-screeching halt," Sklar said. "It's the most absurd thing I've ever heard. It's saying, 'I'm going to screw the people of the city because I can't get my way.'"