pleasant, but we are here again. but the people i want to thank is the community. you hosted this plant for so long a time. you also were very patient over the last 12 months, and i apologize because you see our goal, which is to make sure the supply to san francisco is secure, so we are finally here, and i thank you for your patience. we have served a notice of termination of reliability of this plant effective january 1. [applause] and i know that you are going to be working very hard to actually take it outside and dismantling -- dismantle it in the best way. i also thank you, john, for your cooperation, and i know you will help us secure supply from throughout san francisco with new plans. again, thank you very much for all of you being here, and thank

you for your patience, and congratulations. [applause] >> thank you very much. the owner of the place we are standing right now, with us today is one of the straight shooters who was with us throughout the process. >> good morning. welcome to potrero power plant. i'm president of the california operations of a company called genon, which is a new name to most of you. it is the result of a merger between the company you do recognize and reliant, which took place just a few weeks ago. it was a little over three years ago that a number of us attended an event just on the other side of our offense, celebrating the signing of a term sheet agreement that in many ways anticipated today, and i would

say it has been a bit of a roller coaster to get from there to here, but we are here today and happy to celebrate this event. it is a day of mixed emotions for me and my colleagues. on one hand, we are happy to celebrate this milestone, which will eliminate the last big power plant in the city of san francisco. i'm very happy for mayor newsom and the city attorney and supervisor maxwell. i know that these folks and many others have worked for a very long time to make this day happen, so it is an important day. we have tried to do our best to work with each of you over the past few years to make this day happen. at the same time, it is a sad day for some of us here. the closure of this facility will eliminate about 30 positions here on site. that is a sad day for many of

us. what i would like to note is that in the background of all of the events that have led up to this one, the employees at this plant have done a tremendous job of operating the plant and have achieved results that but this plant at the top tier of their industry, including some very important awards in both safety and reliable operations this year. they did that while the whole time this uncertainty was looming, and they knew that this announcement was just around the corner. so i would just like to thank the plant manager. [applause] and your team for really maintaining excellence in light of the uncertainty and inevitable closure of this plant. i think it is commendable what you guys have done. i know a number of people are going to want to know what we do next with this site once the closure is complete, and i would

answer that by saying right now, we are going to focus on making sure the closure is complete. that is our top priority, and that is what we're going to be focused on for the next several weeks. we think there is a lot of value for us and the community, and we look forward to working with the community that explores the operations for the site and develop a plan that makes sense to all. i'm looking forward to that chapter as we close this one, and i thank you all for being here today and ask you to be safe on your way out today. thanks a lot. [applause] >> thank you, john. we have mentioned community several times, and there are a lot of folks here. at the risk of midget -- missing a few, just to mention the potrero hill folks, and the powerpoint task force, the people that have worked on that for years need to be thanked for this. [applause]

obviously, people from bayview who worked on their power plant and this one so much. espanola jackson would be here, but she is recovering. we have community activists who have worked and really added their voice to this and were there when we needed them to be, but no campaign actually works without a standard bearer, someone willing to walk in front, get abused, keep going with the singular force of saying, "i'm going to make this happen no matter what anybody says to me he can that takes a singular kind of courage that you do not always see eye and elected officials, and that person is so the maxwell -- sophie maxwell. >> when they say it takes a village to raise a child, it has taken a state and city to close this power plant. i started working on these plans

when i took office, and now, the plants are leaving with me -- at least this one is -- and that is great. i also want to thank all of those folks. i remember the first time when we met officially as him being mayor and him being supervisor -- him being mayor and me being supervisor. i want to thank him. theresa miller, who is there with us all the time, all the questions, all the letters. i want to thank you for all those letters as we are talking on the phone. this is great for san francisco. it is certainly great for potrero. san francisco is really putting us where we want to be on the road toward a clean energy future. for that, i want to thank everybody who has something to

do with this, but this is great for our city. thank you. >> thank you. another supervisor who was instrumental in this was supervisor alioto-pier. >> the san francisco board of supervisors can at times been a contentious place. district 10 has been represented by someone, my colleague, supervisor maxwell, who has done its with such graciousness and beauty, really. whenever she wants something, she always gets it, so i cannot congratulate enough.

this is huge for the community she was raised in. i would also like to thank all the people who have been part of this. it is exciting for me, the little bit that i had anything to do with. have to do more with the combustion turbine engines. the idea that we could close down and not build them, i have to say that the one person who, unfortunately, is not here with us today, who was such an instrumental part and such a force in my life was dick sklar, so i thank him for the work he did and the courage to try to change something. sometimes change can be difficult. now, we will have clean air, not cleaner air, and the city is a much better place for the

leadership. thank you all very much. [applause] >> as has been said, this would not have been done without a lot of city staff working on things. the puc staff. the city attorney stuff with just relentless at getting information, demanding change. >> thank you. i do not think i have ever been at a celebratory event where everybody was so candid about the ups and downs. there are a lot of phone calls, arguments, disputes, but the fact of the matter is everybody was focused on the same goal. that was getting this plant shut, so i wanted to thank yakut for his sticktoitiveness. to mayor newsom, i cannot

imagine a better partner in this, because you stop to what you said you were going to do when you came into office, and we have to remember it was a little more than 10 years ago when we were not talking about shutting down the plant. there were discussions about making it bigger. i think it was because of the support of my supervisor who made sure that we all kept our nose to the grindstone and the tremendous influence and support of folks in the community that have been mentioned who made sure that they saw -- whether they saw sophie maxwell in rebate you or me in the doghouse, that we kept our focus on what was important. you did not see people talking about the potrero power plant or the hunters point power plant, they talked about power in the southeast sector. everybody stood together and knew that we needed to get these

dirty polluting power plants out of san francisco. you all deserve a tremendous amount of credit for holding all of our feet to the fire. i cannot thank all of you enough. i know now for the first time in 17 years, when i wake up in dog patch, i'm not going to see smoke coming out of this power plant, and that is tremendous. i want to thank john. he was a hard bargainer, hard negotiator during the agreement to shut this place down. genon deserves credit for the tremendous work, but i cannot imagine a better gift for the mayor as he goes to the governor, and i know this is one of the proudest moments they have ever had in being in the public light, and they deserve tremendous credit for their leadership. so thanks for all your hard work. thanks so much.

[applause] >> i cannot let today go by without a personal story. one of my earliest memories was of a 5-year-old child walking through here. who would have done that? my father worked on the night shift. they were going to be launching a ship, so we were going to go out and watch that be launched. no tears over this place, clearly, but at the same time, this provided jobs. as we start to redo this place, let's make sure that it creates jobs. it is a place we can be proud of as it creates this new life, and i hope to be your celebrating the new life of all of us. people who work here and can live here with a good job. next, from the california puc, without them, all the stuff that was going on here was pg&e doing their transition upgrades, and we have two commissioners with

us today. >> thank you very much. many people have already been thank, and i will just _ that i appreciate their work as well, but i especially want to acknowledge and congratulate the residents of this south west corp. of san francisco, the environmental justice advocates who worked so hard to ensure the plant's closure. without your steadfast dedication to this effort, and along with your patience, we are here to be able to celebrate this moment today. mike agency played a relatively small part in making this happen, though we like to think it was a crucial part. where we stand is to help ensure the other side of the equation, which was helping make california's clean energy future a reality, so the closing down its plant does not mean that somebody else's back yard gets a new power plant. but really providing leadership

in the area of of of all promoting energy efficiency in our state, so we use energy more efficiently. we use less energy overall. making sure that an ever larger proportion of energy we use in california comes from non- emitting renewable resources and only permitting the cleanest and most efficient new fossil fuel power plants. that is the focus of my agency, and i think that as the other piece of the equation, to insure that this is just one milestone on the road to our clean energy future, so congratulations to all of you, and i wish you the best over the holidays. [applause] >> finally, there was a change in the power grid, so pg&e did their part, and the other major part of what happened was the transbay cable being completed. >> thank you. i think the heavy lifters have

already spoken, but the president of the california public utilities commission could not be here today. he had a conflict in southern california, and with the rain storms, i do not think he could have flown up here even if he wanted to, but i want to congratulate again all of the major players in this historic event, particularly our mayor and lt. governor elect. you have been an aggressive and pragmatic force in this state, in this country, in the arecons, and i'm sure your better accomplishments are yet to come in this field. to my supervisor, we live in district 10. as we would drive into the downtown every day, we would see the exhaust from the marine facility from highway 280, and it was a stark reminder of california's energy needs but also an inspiration as to what we could do going forward to

ensure that the residents in the southeast can live with the same quality of air as other areas of san francisco, and it took a champion like sophy maxwell sophysophie -- like sophie maxwell. again, on behalf of the public utilities commission, congratulations to everyone who has been involved in this fight. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. nowyoucfo of transbay. >> we are happy to be here and play our part in recognizing the vision of the city leadership, and we want to thank you for your assistance. we've been live now for about three days, and we want to thank some of the key stakeholders

that help us build our ambitions. at least of which was the pittsburgh howard company. they played a huge part in working with the stakeholders to get this facility built. steel river for their stick to it of this to help us get the facility built through an economic challenging environment, and we are just happy to play our part and thank everybody for their part in realizing our ambition. thank you. >> i also want to mention melanie is from the department of environment. we have other folks in the room today, so thank you all very much for coming. we will be available for questions, but i think we are all going to go warmup somewhere. thank you. [applause]

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>> good morning. welcome to st. francis memorial hospital. note welcome -- welcome to the fifth annual tree lighting. we are recognizing the role that the burn center played to us in the community of st. francis and the whole region and wished to

demonstrate for you today the risk of christmas trees -- the danger that they present to us. we have a couple of guests to speak to us on behalf of the burn center. i wanted first introduced the centers assemblywoman. >> thank you. growing up, show and tell was one of my favorite things, and this is the ultimate show and tell. this is the fifth annual tree lighting, burning ceremony. and i want to thank the san francisco fire department for keeping us safer. also, st. francis memorial hospital. and they are the only burn center here in the bay area

counties. we want to thank them for all the work they are doing. they have many patients that they see every day. all of the doctors as well. all the staff here at the hospital, thank you for what you do everyday. for the holidays, do not overload extension cords, turn off holiday lights before you go to bed. never leave candles unattended, especially around the christmas tree. water trees daily so that they do not dry out. recycle your tree. do not put them in the fireplace. keep charged fire extinguishers in central locations. thank you all very much. we hope everybody has a safe holiday season. [applause] >> thank you. next, i would like to induce a

woman that really needs no introduction, our own fire chief, joanne. >> thank you for being here, everyone. this is the fifth annual christmas tree lighting, different from other lighting, but just as important. we want to show you that holidays can be safe for us all, however, a tree can quickly go up in flames and cause damage to property and lives. i want to thank st. francis medical center for partner with us every year. the care that they have for each and every patient walking through the door is amazing. the burn center does great work for people who are burned, either through fire or scald injuries. it is the holiday season and we want to ensure a happy holiday season, so we have this

demonstration for you. we want to make sure during the holidays you do not leave those candles unattended. certainly, you want to keep those trees hydrated, as they can cause great damage. i want to thank engine company 38 for coming out to provide the vigil. we have the fire chief battalion here with us. once again, have a healthy and happy christmas, holiday season, and 2011. thank you very much. >> next from st. francis memorial hospital burns center, we have our medical doctor. >> thank you everyone for coming here this morning. i also want to thank assemblywoman mauck for being

here this morning. i also want to thank the wonderful firefighters that keep our city safe. as we celebrate this holiday season come as a reminder from the st. francis memorial hospital burn center, we would like you to keep your family's safe and free from fire. take a moment to think about the safety warnings and please take care of your family. this time of year, we see increases in the incidence of structural fires, especially in spalding's. make sure you check your christmas trees, that they are well hydrated, and with the kids, make sure that they are well guarded from dangers, including candles. we want to wish you a very safe holiday season from here at st. francis. thank you very much. [applause]

>> okay, we are going to let the burning begin. our fire department personnel will keep us safe. they will be letting the tree as well. -- lighting the tree as well. >> now we are going to show you just how quickly this tree can

be engulfed in flames. you can imagine most of these trees are placed in areas with lots of furniture. you can see how quickly it can like anything that is combustible around it, such as drapery, furniture, and other things. so within 90 seconds, the tree is entirely burned. as i said before, a lot of times, it will catch furniture, clothing, draperies, so we want to make sure that you keep your tree watered daily.

that tree was fully engulfed within 30 seconds. you can see the kind of damage that that can cause to property. just a reminder -- visuals are good -- that we need to keep ourselves safe over the holiday season. thank you again to engine 38. [applause] >> thank you to all of you for coming. we will be back again next year. if any of the news media has questions for any of the individuals, they are available for comment. thank you.