Global warming bill delays Desert Rock
By Kathy Helms, Diné Bureau,
Gallup Independent, MARCH 24, 2008
ST. MICHAELS — The air permit for the
Desert Rock Energy Project is being held up by U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency over concerns with the
Endangered Species Act and global warming, and legislation
introduced March 11 in Washington is not going to help
the matter.
Introduced by Rep. Edward Markey and
Rep. Henry Waxman, the “Moratorium on Uncontrolled Power
Plants Act of 2008,” addresses the largest new source
of global warming pollution — new coal-fired power plants
that are being built without any controls on their global
warming emissions, according to the chairmen.
The bill places a moratorium on either
EPA or states issuing permits to new coal-fired power
plants without state-of-the-art control technology to
capture and permanently sequester the plant’s carbon
dioxide emissions. The moratorium extends until a comprehensive
federal regulatory program for global warming pollution
is in place.
The bill also bars a new coal-fired
power plant without state-of-the-art control technology
from receiving any free or reduced-cost emissions allowances
under a future federal program to address global warming.
Many communities are still paying for
failed nuclear power plant investments in the 1980’s,
the chairmen said.
“This bill puts investors and power
companies on notice that if they invest in new sources
of global warming pollution now, taxpayers won’t pay
for the costs of cleaning up those sources later,” the
chairmen said.
“That’s what’s really holding up the
permit, as we understand,” Diné Power Authority
General Manager Steven Begay told the Economic Development
Committee this week.
According to Waxman, comprehensive economy-wide
regulation to address global warming is coming soon.
More than 100 new plants have been proposed, and even
if just a portion of these are built, they will emit
over a hundred million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
While Desert Rock will have state-of-the-art
technology, carbon capture technology for the plant
does not exist yet on a commercial scale, Begay said.
In which case, the plan now is to build the plant and
leave a space so the plant can be retrofitted with a
carbon-capture system when it becomes available.
“Carbon capture technology is there
— it’s theory — but there is no real practice. They’re
being experimented on real small scales and you can’t
just go from there to large scale. So there’s that design
that’s not there that we’re willing to look at.”
Once a design becomes available, the
next step would be financing. “ For the size of the
plant that Desert Rock is promoting to develop, it will
require about $450 million per unit,” he said. There
are two 750 megawatt units proposed for the $3 billion,
1,500 megawattt coal-fired power plant to be built near
Burnham.
Begay said installation of the carbon
capture system also would result in less power available
to sell.
“It absorbs some of that power from
the plant to run the system, so it reduces your net
output to the off-takers. There is some economic impact
because of that, because that means that the Nation
and the partners won’t be selling as much power because
some of that power will be used in the carbon capture
system.
“But given that its all experimental—
there’s no proven technology that can be applied at
the size Desert Rock will be — we’re receptive to it
but we’ve got to keep moving. There is a slot in the
emission system where, if it’s there, we’ll put it in.”
Developers of Desert Rock are receptive
and available to talk about bringing about the carbon
capture technology, he said, but an assessment would
be needed to determine what to do with the carbon once
it is captured or sequestered. “Do we put it in some
aquifer or some dome, or do we market it to Utah or
Texas to do tertiary recovery? We’ll need to have pipelines
to send that, so there’s that evaluation that needs
to be done.”
DPA and Sithe Global Power subsidiary
Desert Rock Energy Co. LLC filed suit this week to prod
EPA on issuance of the Desert Rock air permit. New Mexico
Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry said that
at the request of the Navajo Nation, NMED staff has
been meeting with tribal environmental officials to
discuss the project and the potential for carbon emission
reductions. “To sue now undercuts these ongoing discussions,”
he said.
“We respect the sovereignty of
the Navajo Nation and the rights of tribal governments
to determine their economic futures and to pursue positive
change within their communities. However, the responsibility
of taking strong action to combat global climate change
is one we must all share.”
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