New West Feature
Coal-fired Plants Lose a Big Battle
Forced retrofit of New Mexico facility could be a harbinger of nationwide change.By New West Editor, 8-08-11
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| The San Juan Generating Station, near Farmington, New Mexico. Photo courtesy of Grand Canyon Trust. | |
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One of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the West has been given five years by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up its act, which its operators say could cost $750 million or more.
The EPA issued a final rule on Friday that Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) must retrofit its San Juan Generating Station near Farmington, New Mexico to diminish emissions that cause visibility problems.
The agency determined that an implementation plan submitted by the state government in 2007 violated “good neighbor” requirements of the Clean Air Act with regard to the San Juan plant, by interfering with the required visibility programs of other states. The plant is located in the Four Corners area.
In January 2009, EPA determined that New Mexico had failed to submit a plan addressing certain regional haze requirements, including one for best available retrofit technology. The state was given until January 2011 to correct the problem, and last December, EPA proposed its plan to cut emissions.
The state’s department of environment proposed an alternate plan, which it argued would be easier on ratepayers.
In a statement accompanying the ruling, EPA noted that “the state plan New Mexico recently submitted to the agency did not provide a basis to delay today’s decision.” The agency imposed nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission limits on the San Juan plant.
Although the decision emphasized visibility issues, EPA’s accompanying comment indicated that its actions were also aimed at “cutting dangerous nitrogen oxide emissions by over 80 percent from one of the nation’s largest polluting power plants.”
It added, “These efforts will dramatically improve visibility in 16 park and wilderness areas in the southwestern US, decreasing the number of days with impaired scenic views and as a result, promoting local tourism.”
PNM management announced in a press release that the decision would be appealed. The company contends that the same federal visibility rules can be met with different technology, which would cost roughly a tenth of the funding needed under the EPA ruling.
Basically, the difference between the two plans is that EPA requires selective, catalytic reduction on all four units, while PNM proposed employing selective, non-catalytic reduction technology.
PNM officials also believe EPA violated the Clean Air Act by finalizing its rule without proper review of New Mexico’s revised plan, which was approved by the state on June 1.
“The EPA plan adds unnecessary costs to one of our lowest-cost sources of reliable power,” said Pat Themig, vice president of generation. “If it stands, it will lead to significantly higher future electric rates for the two million customers who rely on the plant for reasonably priced power.”
The Grand Canyon Trust conservation group declared that EPA’s requirement for reduction in nitrous oxide emissions most likely will necessitate the selective catalytic controls.
Its statement described this as the nation’s first federal plan requiring nitrous oxide reduction to improve visibility. “There are decades-old plants with major pollution problems in more than 40 other states that will face similar decisions on pollution upgrades in the coming year or two,” it said.
The American Lung Association has given an “F” for ozone pollution to San Juan County, where the plant is located.
Yesterday, the Farmington Daily Times reported, “Local elected officials, business groups, and PNM waged a fierce campaign to persuade the EPA that a less restrictive state plan would be adequate to cut pollution.”
The article said the city of Farmington owns 8.5 percent of the San Juan plant’s fourth unit. “Jobs are now vulnerable,” Mayor Tommy Roberts said.
Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico energy coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance, told the paper, “It’s perhaps a new day, when it comes to continued reliance on coal-fired power plants that emit huge amounts of pollution and affect communities in many ways.”
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Comments
So that news which came out on friday afternoon, was followed by the news that the stock market dropped another 600 plus points today. Which is a great time to shut down plants making cheap power and think that public utilities will run to the bankers and borrow a shit load of money to build some solar panels or another version of a coal fired plant that can be regulated out of business by the zealots like Carol Browner or Lisa Jackson...
I think they ought to shut down those coal plants in summer so there is no air conditioning in the drought belt. People will stand outside and marvel at the clean air in 110 degree temperatures inside and out...save the coal for winter. You can freeze to death in winter without heat. Hard to freeze in August. Just shade up like cows. And whisk away the flies. Maybe you will have an Obama appointee under the tree with you.
Under this wonderful philosophy we can have cheap electrical power and create high paying jobs in healthcare throughout the USA. Maybe since New Mexico’s preferred approach uses less expensive non-catalytic controls we should be able to ditch expensive catalytic converters in our trucks as well.
Can anyone explain to me why the food and the energy industries are the targets of environmental groups and regulations? Shortages of either or both of these can severely cripple our country, so why?
A week early for the crop that is there, and a week or more later than ever. I doubt if we get all our fruit to mature before the sun falls far in the south, and the days shorten, get colder, and the falls rains appear. At the 45 th parallel, and we have yet to see a 90 degree day this year. The air conditioning has yet to run at my house. No need. The issue with energy companies is lagging revenue due to lack of demand. No manufacturing ongoing. The largest, newest outlet for electricity is computer banks in server facilities for the internet giants like Google, Amazon, et al. They are building on the BPA grid, taking power that used to drive aluminum plants and sawmills. I wonder when some small town agrees to buy the excess heat from one of those huge buildings full of servers, and use it to heat schools and public buildings.
I come from a time when you had an inherent trust in government, and believed that government could help solve problems. Never, ever, did it occur to me that government would end up being the dragon that ate our country. Not only has unrestrained public spending ruined our economy, but every time a legislative body meets the goal is to further regulate and micro manage private lives and economic endeavors. We are living the result. Mandating tearing out dams, shutting down the cheapest power production, forcing entities to spend millions in attempts to gain government permission to build or to expand a business, and often denied that ability, sends shivers down my spine. Self mutilation and self loathing are psychological problems of individuals that have morphed into social institutions. Hate your country, and destroy it from within. That has been the discourse for thirty years, and the results are here. We got what we wanted, evidently. A third of the country living on entitlements the other two thirds now cannot support forcing the government to borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends to coddle the population. Those who did work now find that the funds to take them to eternity are gone, due to the inability of government to act.
Since the last unit built at th Four Corners Power Plant (#5) was completed in the 1970s, the plant had already been built. The study being carried out in the 1980's by the NPS must have been concerned with using a stack height of 500 ft. to help minimize the haze problem there. Sorry.
The bummer for you old timers is that coal stoves blackend the inside of homes and got into our lungs. We would blow our noses and black from the soot of the stoves would cover our handkerchiefs. I for one don't hanker for those days.
We need the green energy and the jobs it will give not the old fashioned killer nukes and fossil fuels.
There are three major Northern California coastal rivers. From south to north, it is the Eel, the Trinity, and the KLamath. The Trinity and Klamath merge at a confluence 40 or so miles above the bar at the ocean. The Trinity has branches that originate in high mountain snow banks, and is the coldest of the three. It has been the Trinity that cooled the lower Klamath and made summer runs of salmon possible.
In 1923, a portion of the Eel was diverted to the south, to fill reservoirs to meeting Marin county water demands. The North Fork Trinity was diverted in the early 1960's in a Bureau of Reclamation project to irrigate the Westland's Irrigation District, far to the south west of the San Joaquin River and south of Monterrey Bay. Both diversions take vast amounts of water out of the watershed, for use elsewhere. Only the Klamath above its confluence with the Trinity is not diverted to Central Valley urban and ag use.
So here we are with the NGOs of the environment demanding that dams be removed from the Klamath to "save" salmon. This is the "last ditch" effort to save northern California salmon. Sure, asshole, after you divert two major rivers for irrigation and potable water OUT OF THEIR WATERSHEDS you now demand that dams be removed IN OREGON to "save salmon" that have lost two thirds of their habitat to California irrigation and water diversions. And the dishonesty of the NGOs in there NEVER mentioning the ongoing diversions is all part of the Big Lie that is government today.
So when the coal fired plants are being condemned with no reasonable replacements or funds to replace that power, you do wonder what regulatory revolution is ongoing to destabliize our country and its economy. When real estate is dead, and money is piling up unspent because the investing public does not know or believe in the future, under the present course of idiocy in the Congress, and asleep at the wheel WhiteHouse, all supposedly to be sorted out by judicial appointees with vigorous vetting as to political views either south or north of an preconceived middle, a person knows that things are really, really bad in these United States. Allowing government to deconstruct out power production resources to "save the salmon", metaphorically the world, then you know it is not practical governance that rules the day, but some idealist's view of how the world should be and the populace be damned, for we shall make the great sacrifices to have a better country and yadda, yadda, yadda......
We are now broke, and killing energy production is NOT the answer to regaining any semblance of economic stability. Dirty air is mostly the function of vehicles standing still with motors running due to the freedom to move about without government control and command. Slaves don't drive cars and go where they want. And that is the lot the likes of Obama and his lefty supporters want for the masses. You can move when we say you can, in ways that we permit. It is for the "common good." Bullshit. It is about control. Just like "saving salmon" is an effort to control ideology and business. Government diverts the water from the other two major rivers. It is the Feds who did that. We, the taxpayers, paid for it. Now we are to believe that private dams that make green power are the font of all environmental troubles??? Bullshit. Removing dams is winning a major battle to control your every move and to have government and mega business be one and the same. Oligarchs ruling the USA. That is the goal.
If we have too much food and energy why do we have Americans that can afford neither?
The only way to preserve the lefty woman's vote all the while favoring abortion, and then keep a majority for elective purposes, the left has to embrace immigration and immigration from cultures that don't limit families.
So we have the abortion rights of convenience, and not, for Cod's sake, population control. And since Roe V Wade actually does limit population, the backfill is unlimited immigration from countries with a culture of large families...lucky us....
Electricity does not created its own demand. That is people using electricity. Fewer people, and you have fewer users of power. And at this time, with our stagnant birthrate, we grow out country by the dishonest way of immigration. That is the argument. That is the fault of the Left.
The farm I have something to do with exists on illegal immigrant labor to pick their crop. Relies. Depends. Exists. And the major reason is that the owner is a naturalized Mexican who does not want to speak to anyone who is not conversant in Spanish. He speaks it a hundred miles an hour, and half his pickers and workers can't understand him, either. Add to that the propensity, now, for Indians, Native Mexicans, to be the labor force, many of them speak some sort of Mexican dialect only they understand. And their native language.
Of course the owner moans about not having his labor force. And he will not spend a dime, make an effort or investigate having a legal work force. Not in the cards. Lazy, actually. Too complacent. And, it is easy to blame the US Govt for all your problems as you sit drinking a Coors lite watching Mexico play soccer. Never root for America in any sport. Cultural racism. No blacks working in the farm. Only Hispanics and me. I have the pesticide licenses, the ongoing education in horticulture (I invest my time in that because I want to do a better job), and know how to grow the crop. His job is picking it. There will be a time when I grow a crop that does not get harvested.
There is no reason to shut down a coal fired electric generation plant. If the market works as it should, and our laws were enforced, the declining birth rate and a strong border would bring power use to a place where market forces and choice would choose what kind of power the market wanted. Of course, the social engineering of the Left and the ObamaNation will not stay the hell out of the way, ever. It is their bent to destroy capitalism, and install an oligarchy of fellow travelers who are paid well for maintaining the social order and sources of production. That has, after all, worked so well elsewhere in the world. And if you never want to flip the switch and have lights go on again, fill the country with "peaceful" muslims, polygamy, Sharia Law, and blood feuds and stonings as the means for social order. That is what Mr. No Hand over Heart on hearing the National Anthem, Mr. Hope and Change, wishes on you. And he has the full power of the EPA to bring you to your knees, and is doing that as I write. All in the name of climate control, global climate change, and what???? it was -92 F at the South Pole yesterday?? Oh, just another anomaly. Just like the six feet of snow in Chile last month. Or the parts of Argentina that have had snow 3 out of the last 4 years, and none before that since weather records have been kept, except in 1902. Another anomaly. I was in my garden the last hour pruning tomatoes so that I might get a ripe one this season. We are not picking our blueberries because we are so short of "degree days" of heat that our crop is not close to being ripe, and we are now two weeks beyond our prior latest start. No climate warming here from those Chinese coal plants...in fact, the issue is warmth. We don't have enough.
By the way have you noticed the water level on many of the southwestern dams lately? Kinda low huh.
Solar...ruin the view in the desert....cha ching $$$$$$ environmental law suit.
Geothermo....the first attempt to drill Old Faithful You gotta be kidding!!!!!!!
Weather is cyclical. We are in a cooling period if you look at the data without an NGO with its hand out interpreting it for you. Or so say the science types who are not dependent upon government largesse for their living.
So, an urban West, the most urbanized sector of our Nation---- (rural opinion was once the majority and urban West towns were no more than supply depots for rural natural resource capitalism)--have grown to hold the majority and they cannot figure out where the jobs went that they just spent the last thirty years killing. No grazing on public lands. No drilling. No mining. Don't use the water. Save the fish (while "sports" keep in killing them in the noble art of fishing--hook and release mortality is 30% or more). The list of now undoable acts is longer than a red light nightmare. We no longer can get there from here. In about anything we do in the United States of 'Merica... there is an administrative rule against it. Or so says the local bureaucrat. And it takes lawyers, courts, and piles of money to prove otherwise. The entity with the most money to spend on lawyers wins. That is the NGOs, who get untaxed money by the bushels, and trust and foundation tax avoidance money in truck loads. Forty years of Democrats "taxing the rich" while providing more loopholes than a Belgian lace maker has only taxed the piss out of middle America and the Whales are awash in dough they are trying to hide, invest, build egos with.
If you want to reform the tax system, start with NGOs that have nothing to do with charity and medical help for the impoverished, and let the NGOs that do humankind favors alone.
Maybe the Montana rancher can then afford to see a doctor, too.