Since 2002, GWF Energy LLC has operated the Tracy Peaker Plant on the western fringe of Tracy. We supported it when it opened, and we support it now as its owners seek to upgrade the facility to produce more power more efficiently.

To recall why it originally earned our approval, take a step into the Not Too Way Back Machine.

In 2000 and 2001, electricity was a hard thing to come by in California. The shenanigans of Enron energy traders and a lack of new power plants led to rolling blackouts, outraging the public and helping cost Gov. Gray Davis his job.

The Tracy plant was designed to fire up when needed, zapping up to 169 megawatts — enough to power more than 125,000 homes — into the grid when demand for electricity was high. It made sense at the time, even if more than a few people didn’t want a power plant for a neighbor.

What’s going on now makes sense, too.

GWF Energy wants to take the fossil fuel-burning plant to full-time status, up its peak operating capacity to 314 megawatts and reduce its relative impact on the environment.

Though it will run for more hours and emit more total pollutants, the revamped power plant will be much cleaner per hour run than it is now, a better energy bang for the ecological buck.

The fact is, the future of California needs more power production, and since we’re not ready for an all-out switch to renewable energy, fossil fuel-fired plants will be a part of that future. Making these facilities as efficient and productive as possible is simply sound energy policy. (Building more nuclear facilities would be too, but that’s another discussion.)

The peaker plant’s new incarnation will also be a boon for the local economy. Company officials say 17 full-time workers will be hired to staff the new plant — a welcome prospect even if the place isn’t fully operational for a few years.

In fact, it’s hard to find more than a handful of objectors to this proposal.

One of them, Tracy Hills, is concerned about its proposed development’s view of 30 extra feet of exhaust stacks. GWF Vice President Doug Wheeler says his company’s trying to find a solution to that worry.

The other is the Tuso family, local landowners who say the facility already degrades their quality of life.

We sympathize with the Tusos, but the reality stacks up against them.

The plant is already there, and GWF owns the place. Plus, the facility counts as neighbors the Owens-Brockway glass manufacturing plant and the Nutting-Rice warehouse, with the biomass power plant about a half-mile to the northwest. It’s an area for industry, and an improved power plant fits in nicely.

The company has also fit well with our community. GWF has bought buses for Tracy Unified School District, runs a lawn mower replacement program and is working with city staff to get a solar farm on 200 acres of land off Schulte Road. And when it comes to offsetting pollution, GWF has agreed with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to be cleaner than regulations require.

The final step between GWF and firing up its revamped plant in 2013, according to Wheeler, is for the California Energy Commission to give its approval.

We hope that step is taken soon.