OC Politics Blog | Category Archives: Debbie Cook

Former H.B. Mayor says the Poseidon Desalination Plant is no bueno!

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Editor Posted in Debbie Cook, Environmental, Huntington Beach, Orange County, Water 1 Comment

Poseidon Huntington Beach Desalination Plant

Community Editorial: Poseidon Desalination Numbers Don’t Add Up

By DEBBIE COOK, Voice of OC

Orange County elected officials love to brag about their fiscal thrift and frequently criticize government subsidies. I wonder how they will feel about subsidizing Huntington Beach for the 30 year term of the Poseidon desalination project.

There is a little-known fact behind Poseidon’s boutique water project in Huntington Beach. In order to sweeten the deal for project approval, Poseidon offered the city a discount of 5% below Metropolitan Water District (MWD) imported water rates on up to 3 million gallons of water per day (3,360 acre-feet per year). For this minor savings to the city, it may cost the other participants upwards of $100 million over the life of the contract. Continue reading→

HB Council Members Boardman and Shaw to kick off campaign on 9/21

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Editor Posted in Connie Boardman, Debbie Cook, Democratic Party, Huntington Beach, Joe Shaw 1 Comment

Join RSACCD Trustee Jose Solorio at the home of Debbie Cook to kick-off the re-election campaign for Connie Boardman and Joe Shaw, on Sep. 21, 2013, from 3 pm to 5 pm. Click here to RSVP.

In the last 4 years Huntington Beach has entered a new era of fiscal prudence and responsibility: Continue reading→

Poseidon Predicament

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Editor Posted in Debbie Cook, Huntington Beach, Poseidon Leave a comment

What a mess of conflicting predictions, estimates, projections and politics — here’s a YouTube for a 23rd March SoCal Insider segment by the excellent reporter/documentarian David Nazar at PBS SoCal (KOCE Channel 50) on the Poseidon Desal plant that’s looking for approval to be built on the beach near the AES Power Plant at Brookhurst and PCH in Huntington Beach.

We don’t think the Poseidon plant pencils and if it, or its owner, FAILS, its cost will end up on Orange County and/or HB taxpayers. But isn’t that always the case when a large public works project has issues? Certainly California High-Speed Rail will be an epic FAIL and not only end up costing us billions if it’s every built, but later generations as well.

We’ve never bought the extremists’ environmental arguments against Poseidon, because they were silly and unsupported with real fact — but the financial risks were overwhelming. For those reasons alone, Poseidon shouldn’t proceed. It’s not up to Debby Cook and her inflammations — she burned her credibility bridge by proselytizing about peak oil for so many years, and then shut up fast and looked for other liberal nostrums to peddle as the good news and great numbers from shale oil production started to emerge from drillers in fields across the United States.

Someone neutral, with no baggage and very very good financial chops needs to take a look at this project. Do we really need it? Is it cost justifiable and effective? Who gets stuck with the bill if it fails, or the demand isn’t there? Or is it just another public works boondoggle that we’ll be paying for for years after the hucksters are long gone?