V1 The Pittsburg Power Plant has been in operation since 1954. This EIR does not address the environmental effects associated with construction and operation of the Pittsburg plant; rather, it addresses the potential environmental changes that would result from PG&E’s sale of the plant and continued operation of the plant by a new owner. As an example, the EIR examines the projected increase over existing noise levels from the Pittsburg Power Plant that would potentially occur with the sale of the plant to another operator. The analysis concludes that, while operation of the plant could increase under the project, which could result in increased noise levels to some degree, the potential change in noise levels would not be significant. Projected increases in PM-10 (dust) would also be less than significant. Please refer to Sections 4.5 and 4.10 of the DEIR, and the response to Comment W1, for additional information on these impacts.

V2 Please see response to Comment V1.

V3 The commenter appears to be advocating that the Pittsburg Power Plant be closed and a new power plant built at another location to replace the generation of the Pittsburg plant. Such a scenario is not a true alternative to the sale of the Pittsburg Power Plant, which, if not sold, would continue to be owned and operated by PG&E (a scenario analyzed as Alternative 1 in Chapter 6 of the DEIR). Furthermore, the Pittsburg plant is designated a "must run" plant by the ISO for reliability purposes, and could not be closed until it is no longer needed for system reliability. For these reasons, the DEIR does not and need not evaluate the potential environmental effects of closing the Pittsburg Power Plant and building a new plant at a different location. As noted elsewhere (see responses to Comments B6, B15, and O1, as well as Figure B6), several new power plants (PDEF and DECP) are proposed to be located in the Pittsburg-Antioch area. Even with these new plants, the Pittsburg Power Plant is expected to continue operation.

V4 Comment noted.