Oakley residents will have their first chance next week to offer input and get information on a proposed power plant in the western part of the city, near the Oakley-Antioch border.

Two members of the California Energy Commission will be at Oakley's DuPont property Monday for a site review for the Oakley Generating Station — a 22-acre, natural gas-fired electric plant. City officials, along with hired consultants, also will be on hand to learn about the proposed facility.

The public hearing is the first of several planned by the commission as it undergoes a 12- to 18-month process to review the application for the plant. People will be able to attend the site review or an informational hearing and environmental scoping meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

The site review will be held at the property along Bridgehead Road beginning around 4 p.m.

City Manager Bryan Montgomery said the hearing will be informative for the city and residents alike.

"I understand it will be a presentation of what the (commission) process is all about, a description of the proposed project, and then time for questions and answers," Montgomery said.

At more than 300 acres, the DuPont property is seen by city officials as a potential site for several types of commercial development. The company stopped operating on the site in 1998, and has been cleaning industrial waste there since 2000. In 2007, the city gave $2 million to the

The site will be developed by Danville-based Radback Energy, which responded to a request for proposal by PG&E. If built, PG&E would own and operate the plant, which would produce a maximum of 624 megawatts of electricity.

It would take nearly three years to build, cost approximately $500 million, and be equipped with state-of-the-art turbines that are dry-cooled and will reduce the amount of water used, energy commission project manager Joseph Douglas said.

Radback CEO Bryan Bertacchi said the plant would use about 93 percent less water and emit 19,000 tons fewer greenhouse gasses compared with other plants with older turbines.

"These are very clean," Bertacchi said. "Burning natural gas is a very clean fuel compared to coal or nuclear power."

Additionally, somewhere between $7 million and $10 million in tax revenue would go to Contra Costa County and Oakley, and the construction would create about 700 union jobs, Bertacchi said.

But not everyone favors the plant.

Oakley resident Paul Seger said the plant will result in more carbon entering the atmosphere. He said he hopes city officials take the time to inquire about local impacts, such as what the plant could mean for the students at Orchard Park Elementary School located a few miles away. He hopes they are not motivated solely by the potential profit.

"They need the money," Seger said, "but sometimes I don't think they look carefully at consequences of things that they do."

In addition, environmental groups Pacific Environment, Communities for a Better Environment and Californians for Renewable Energy are urging the California Public Utilities Commission to deny PG&E's application for the Oakley plant and one planned in Antioch.

Jonathan Lockett covers Oakley. Reach him at 925-779-7174 or jlockett@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/jonathanlockett.