CARLSBAD: The City Council took a stand last night opposing a proposed power plant west of Interstate 5, saying it would like the utility moved farther inland in the city.

“It's a 50-year-vision question,” Councilman Mark Packard said.

“It is no longer in the best interest of the city of Carlsbad to occupy prime coastal area with a utility, industrial use, like is there now,” he said before a unanimous vote.

NRG Energy, which operates the Encina Power Station at Cannon Road and Carlsbad Boulevard, has applied to the California Energy Commission to build a new plant on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, next to the freeway.

The commission, not the city, has the final say on whether the plant is built.

NRG proposes a natural-gas-fueled plant that would generate 540 megawatts of power when the region needs electricity, or about 40 percent of the time.

The new air-cooled plant would eventually replace the ocean-water-cooled station and its 400-foot smokestack.

NRG hopes to begin operating a new plant by 2010 or 2011. –M.B.