Journalism 203 Print Assignment: Coal Plants

The air reverberated with tension Friday afternoon as a stunning blow was dealt to seven environmental groups seeking to stop coal power from advancing in Nevada.
The State Environmental Commission denied a petition brought by an organization of seven environmental groups Friday, Sept. 7.
Seven organizations, led by the Western Resource Advocates, brought the petition against six coal power plants in the process of being given permits.
The power plants are designed for placement in White Pine and Lincoln counties.
As a comprise, the Commission voted to have an agreement signed by the power companies seeking permits. The agreement will request the power companies to make the power plants so carbon capture technology, a process of taking carbon dioxide from a power plant and putting it into the ground, can be easily attached after the plants have been built.
Representatives from the three companies seeking to build the plants, Sierra Pacific Resources, Sithe Global Power, and LS Power Company said carbon capture technology will not be available in a way that does not cost too much until at least 2017 and more likely 2020.
Commission’s legal authority
A representative from the Attorney General’s office said the commission did not have the right to stop the permitting process of the coal fired plants.
The commission recognized its right to regulate green house gas emissions but did not create any regulations. The commission did not ask the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection to draft any regulations pertaining to green house gasses.
Drafting green house gas emission regulations could take up to 18 months, Leo Drozdoff, the director of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, said
“Drafting green house gas emission regulations in 18 months is a conservative estimate,” Allen Biaggi, Director of the Department of Conservation and National Resources, said.
When green house gas regulations would be ready for approval by the commission, the legislature would already be back in session, he said.
Reasons for rejecting the petition
The Commission rejected the petition because of the proposed limits on green house gasses, the state’s reliance on natural gas and imported electricity, electricity transmission lines, economic impact on White Pine and Lincoln counties and the timeliness of the petition, John Walker, Executive Secretary to the Environmental Commission, said.
The level of regulation for green house gasses the petitioners proposed was impossible to be met by coal fired power plants, Walker said.
“The proposed limit on the production of carbon dioxide was ridiculous,” he said.
No coal fired power plant in the world could meet the emission standard the petitioners proposed, he said. Coal power plants produce twice as much carbon dioxide as gas power plants.
According to the petition filed with the Commission, “no more than 1,100 pounds
of carbon dioxide pollution per megawatt-hour can be emitted.”
The 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide standard is based on the amount of carbon dioxide a gas power plant produces, Kyle Davis of the Nevada Conservation League, said.
“We want to stop coal plants completely,” he said.
During the hearing, Commissioner Pete Anderson expressed his disagreement with the proposed 1,100 pounds standard.
“The standard for carbon dioxide production proposed in the petition is not based in science,” Anderson said.
Although the Davis said only gas-fired plants should be built, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada said the state is 75 to 80 percent reliant on natural gas to meet its energy needs.
According to written testimony from the Public Utilities Commission, natural gas prices are volatile and affected by a number of factors outside of Nevada’s control.
To pick up the slack from gas powered plants, Nevada imports over half of its power needs, Gov. Jim Gibbons wrote in a letter to the commission.
“Estimates put the cost of power importation at $1.5 billion annually,” Gibbons wrote. Gibbons called Nevada’s use of imported energy “expensive and unpredictable.”
To transmit renewable power
According to written testimony submitted by LS Power Development, developers of a proposed 1,590 megawatt coal fired plant in White Pine County, the electricity transmission line that would link renewable energy in eastern and northern Nevada to southern Nevada would not be built unless developers built a coal fired power plant with it.
“It takes a large scale power plant to pay for transmission lines,” Biaggi said.
The power transmission line would allow power created by renewable energy sources in northern and eastern parts of the state, such as geothermal, wind and solar, to be brought to the Las Vegas power market, Gibbons wrote.
The petition was late
In 2007, the legislature passed SB 422 which creates a registry for tracking green house gas emissions, Walker said.
“The legislature already made legislation on the issue,” he said.
The petition was brought after the each of the power companies spent 20 million dollars on the permitting process, he said.
“The petition was brought too late,” he said.
The power plants would bring economic benefits to the residents of White Pine County, Todd Koch of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada, wrote in a letter to the commission.
“[The petitioners] asked the Commission to turn its back on the economic needs of White Pine County,” Koch wrote.
The White Pine County Commission is too centered on the economic impacts of the proposed power plants, Bob Fulkerson, State Director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said. “The White Pine County Commission is blinded to the environmental damage the plants could cause.”