DIRTY DOZEN

Study: Southwest Power Plants Raise Global Warming Threat

By David Frey, 1-30-07

Here’s the riddle. What could rise out of the desert and threaten to spew the equivalent of 12.5 million cars’ worth of tailpipe exhaust in global warming pollutants? The answer, according to a study by a pair of environmental organizations, is over a dozen coal-fired power plants slated for Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

Most are still in the permitting phases, but if they get up and running, the report warns, they’ll put out 70 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in an effort to satisfy the energy needs of the booming cities of the Southwest – one of the fastest-growing region’s of the country.

Those are the findings of “Climate Alert: Cleaner Energy for the Southwest,” a report released on Tuesday by the groups Environmental Defense and Western Resource Advocates. The groups are trying to capitalize on moves by governors and other policymakers in those five states to switch from traditional energy sources, like coal, to alternative energies like solar, wind and geothermal power.

“The American Southwest is at a pivotal crossroads,” says Vickie Patton, senior attorney for Environmental Defense in Boulder, Colo., “and we can either saddle our children with staggering amounts of global warming pollution or we can unleash Western innovation to address the urgent problem of global warming and healthier air. There are a number of really critical decisions that are being made today that will determine whether we choose to address the urgent problem of global warming or choose the kind of old, outdated technology that will have consequences for the next half-century.”

The region is already facing air problems associated with existing power plants. The mesas and buttes of the Four Corners area often hide behind hazy skies that officials link to power plants and oil and gas operations. The report warns that additional plants being considered for the region not only threaten to worsen haze, but to contribute to global warming. Existing plants emit 176 million tons of global warming pollution each year, the study says. The additional plants would raise that by 40 percent.

The region is “precariously vulnerable” to rising temperatures, the report says, due to global warming’s potential to lessen precipitation and snowpack levels in an already arid climate where fragile mountain and desert ecosystems and agricultural and tourism economies could be damaged. A notoriously hot region is seeing rising temperatures “pushing the boundary of livability,” the study says, and the risk of wildfire could grow.

The groups worry the 14 proposed coal-fired power plants in the region could undo efforts the states are making to lessen energy dependency. That includes the Desert Rock power plant slated for the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, which has been permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency. An annual discharge of 10.5 million tons of carbon dioxide “would erase one-third of the reductions forecast from the full implementation of California’s landmark restrictions on global warming pollution from its millions of motor vehicles.”

In all, the report warns, 14 power plants proposed for the five states could release 69.9 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. While several have plans to remove chemicals like sulfur dioxide and particulates, only one plans to remove carbon dioxide, it says.

“If these plants moved forward, they’re likely to operate for 50 or 60 years, leaving our region with a carbon hangover for decades to come,” says John Nielsen, of Western Resource Advocates.

The groups urge renewable technologies and energy efficiency to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and points to efforts in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Colorado to reduce their consumption.

The region has some of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, including Phoenix and Las Vegas, and nearby California is also seeking more power from plants in the Southwest.

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