On October 29, Chevron filed a motion for a stay or suspension of its small power plant exemption for a 60 megawatt generation project before the California Energy Commission. The document can be accessed at http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/chevron/documents/applicant_files/2007-10-25_MOTION_FOR_STAY_OR_SUSPENSION_TN-43034.PDF.

The rather cryptic reasons given were:

1.    Applicant’s project schedule has experienced delay, allowing Applicant to turn its resources to other matters and providing additional time for the processing of the application.

2.    The multiple siting proceedings currently before the Energy Commission place significant demands on scarce Staff resources. A stay would provide Staff the opportunity to divert scarce resources to other projects during the stay.

3.    Applicant anticipates that Staff and other parties would work diligently to meet a revised schedule for a timely final decision upon an Applicant motion for resumption of the proceeding.

4.    No harm would result from the granting of a stay.

This project, which is part of a major refinery upgrade and expansion, has drawn significant criticism because of Chevron’s failure to propose effective mitigations for environmental impacts.

For a full library of files on the project, including Transcript for the Informational Hearing and Site Visit from August 30, 2007, see http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/chevron/documents/index.html#applicant.