HAYWARD -- Hayward residents are locked in a power struggle over two energy-producing plants proposed for their neighborhood.

Paul Haavik's relatives have seen development grow around their Hayward home for more than 60 years. It never worried them until this year, when the Tierra Energy Company announced plans to build a new power plant nearby.

The proposed Eastshore Energy Center would sit on about seven acres of land on Clawiter Road. The facility would be a peaker plant, able to fire up in 10 minutes during peak usage to supply PG&E with energy for the greater bay area.

Tierra Energy's contract would limit them to 4,000 hours a year, but opponents worry that pollution, noise and heat from the plant would pose a hazard to people in the surrounding area.

Haavik and others launched a letter writing campaign in February. To date, the California Energy Commission has received about 1300 letters opposed to the plan.

Right now, less controversy surrounds a second company's proposal to build a power plant called the Russell City Energy Center. That site is located a few miles away in a more industrialized area on a larger tract of land that sits next to a waste treatment site and a chemical plant.

Hayward's Chamber Of Commerce President Scott Raty is voicing support for both power plants.

"We believe that incorporating a use like this makes it attractive for other kinds of industry to be here, for example biotech," says Raty. "Hayward's got a pretty good concentration of biotech industries, It's important to them to have reliable energy."

Supporters of the power plants say the new plants would also bring in property tax revenue, new jobs, and more financial support for the community. They argue that upwards of $1 million dollars would be spent in the local economy as a result of the energy center being in Hayward

There will be another public hearing addressing the issue soon. If the commission approves the plans by December 2007, construction could be completed by May 2009.