State files petition against Desert Rock

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The state of New Mexico filed a petition Thursday with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board claiming EPA’s decision to issue the Desert Rock air permit was legally and technically flawed.

The 94-page petition requests the appeals board deny the permit or remand it to EPA for further consideration of the 1,500 megawatt coal-fired facility’s effects on ozone, visibility, particulate matter, carbon dioxide, and hazardous air pollutants.

EPA also issued the permit before completing consultation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which is a violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to the state.

“I am extremely concerned that EPA ignored New Mexico’s legal, environmental, and human health concerns when it issued an air permit to the proposed Desert Rock Energy Facility,” said Gov. Bill Richardson. “Coal-fired power plants create severe environmental impacts, so it is incumbent on the board to remand this to EPA to ensure the highest level of environmental protection.”

New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry said EPA ignored its obligation to ensure the plant will not adversely impact dozens of endangered and threatened species.

“Desert Rock’s modeling also shows that it will significantly impact ozone levels in the Four Corners region and degrade visibility from the Grand Canyon across northern New Mexico and into Colorado. Desert Rock will also contribute to New Mexico’s high levels of mercury, further impairing our waters and endangering public health,” Curry said.

Jeff Holmstead represents Desert Rock. Holmstead was a former EPA Air Administrator and now heads Bracewell & Giuliani’s Environmental Strategies Practice. Earlier this year, Desert Rock developers sued EPA to compel action on the air permit, which EPA issued July 31. Richardson said EPA was “bending to the will of corporate, financial and misguided political interests.”

Holmstead said Thursday that New Mexico’s legal challenge is “long on words but short on substance. It looks like the state has simply compiled a list of all the arguments that environmental activists have invented over the last few years in order to blockthe construction of any new coal-fired power plants.”

Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Desert Rock who also works for Bracewell & Giuliani, said, “It is the same old story of the governor and attorney general saying “No” to Navajo jobs, Navajo revenue and Navajo sovereignty.” He said the project has strong support from President Joe Shirley Jr. and the Navajo Nation Council. The former, 20th Council approved the plant.

Coal royalty payments contributed more than $61 million to the Nation’s General Fund in FY 2007. Proponents of the joint Sithe Global-Dine Power Authority project say Desert Rock is expected to bring more than $50 million annually to Navajo in direct economic benefits. The parties are now in discussion with Resources Committee on right-of-way compensation.

When EPA issued the air permit for Desert Rock in July, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, blasted EPA, saying, “It is reckless to approve a huge coal-fired power plant with no global warming emission controls.

“This one massive plant will negate the emissions reductions being implemented by the Northeastern states in the first mandatory regional program to cut global warming pollution. The Administration’s shameful decision rewards polluters, flouts the Clean Air Act, and fails the American people.”

In March, Waxman and Rep. Edward Markey introduced the “Moratorium on Uncontrolled Power Plants Act of 2008.” The bill would place 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.

While Desert Rock will have state-of-the-art technology, carbon capture technology for the plant does not exist yet on a commercial scale.

Holmstead said the state’s leading argument is that the permit is invalid.

because EPA failed to complete formal consultation pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. “Desert Rock recognizes that ESA consultation is necessary, and expects that this process will be completed soon,” he said.

The state alleges that EPA failed to adequately consider ozone impacts in a region that is close to nonattainment, violated the Clean Air Act by failing to require hazardous air pollutant and fine particulate matter analyses prior to issuing the permit, and did not consider Desert Rock’s more than 11 million tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions. Combined with emissions from Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generating Station, the three plants would emit 38 million tons per year of carbon dioxide.

Holmstead said EPA experts approved the type of air quality analysis that Desert Rock conducted and found that the Desert Rock facility will be the cleanest coal-fired power plant in the country and will not have any adverse impact on air quality.