GLENDALE, Calif. — Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Director Morgan Goodwin has collected 1,350 signatures to give to the Glendale City Council.

Goodwin’s petition demands a halt in new natural gas projects that the city-run utility Glendale Water and Power wants to build.

“We don’t think that it’s necessary, and so we are trying to push the city council. We’re trying to make the case that this is really just not the right thing for Glendale right now,” said Goodwin.

Four years ago, GWP proposed investing in natural-gas-fired generators to help replace the city’s aging Grayson Power Plant.

But the community protested, so the city council asked GWP to come back with as much clean energy as possible. They did. The plan includes more clean energy, but it also includes burning fossil fuels amid a climate crisis.

“The crisis is only going to get worse, and if you’re in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging,” said Goodwin.

The Grayson Power Plant’s aging infrastructure no longer meets air quality standards. So GWP wants to invest in five gas-burning combustion engines, at a cost of more than $200 million.

GWP General Manager Mark Young says right now, 100% clean energy isn’t possible, and that gas is needed as a backup power supply during peak demand or when transmission lines are down for wildfires.

“We just don’t want to be in a position where we find ourselves short or having to manually turn people off and that’s the big thing,” he said.

GWP’s proposal includes clean energy programs like battery storage and solar panels. The utility maintains that it needs to generate enough gas to meet demand, or there’s a risk of power going out.

“We didn’t want to be short. So we would rather build it and not need it, then to need it and not have it,” said Young.

Goodwin questions why they would make an enormous investment in fossil fuels, when California law will require 100% clean energy by 2045.

“Building any kind of new fossil fuel infrastructure at this late hour of the climate crisis is not OK,” said Goodwin. “And we are fiercely opposed to it.”