EDITORIAL

The difference in the eyes of neighbors, it seems, comes down to size.

Back when Southern California Edison ran the Newland Street power

plant, neighbors felt they could stomach the generator’s noise and

pollution in part because Edison managed to portray itself as a local

company, one that gave back to its community.

Then, in 1997 AES Corp. came to town, buying the plant from Edison --

but not its relationship with the community. The international company,

headquartered clear across the country in Virginia, didn’t have the

luxury of “Southern California” in its name or the decades of uneasy

truce with residents.

This year, when AES could have used a better relationship in the city,

it didn’t have it. When California’s “energy crisis” hit and the company

decided to restart two of the plant’s shutdown units, neighbors were none

too happy. More generators, they figured, means more pollution, more

noise -- more of what they hate from Pacific Coast Highway and Newland

Street.

The ensuing divisiveness -- which ended last month with the city and

AES negotiating a deal instead of going before the South Coast Air

Quality Management District -- could have been avoided through better

communication by AES. Much of the complaints by neighbors and city

officials seem simply to be a matter of poor communication and public

relations on the part of AES. AES officials say it is not the company’s

style to trumpet when it gives back to the community.

In this case, with the history of Edison to contend with, it should

have been. If nothing else, clear communications to make it clear the

company wasn’t Edison would have prepared residents for what was to come

-- something different.

AES now has the burden of repairing frayed relations after the fact

instead of nurturing them during the past four years.