Panel backs power plants

CARSON CITY -- A governor-appointed panel Tuesday called for energy policy changes that aim to clean up Nevada's air without jeopardizing the construction of more power plants in the state.

The Nevada Climate Change Advisory Committee formally released the final version of its 189-page report in a presentation to Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Committee members see a future Nevada with higher temperatures, less precipitation, more wildfires and a generally less desirable climate.

But they did not recommend policy changes that would require an immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions thought by some scientists to be the main cause of global warming.

Instead, the committee emphasized that greenhouse gas emissions have decreased on a per capita basis since 1994 and that the state should adopt a policy to reduce the intensity of the emissions.

Under that scenario, power generation facilities could be constructed if their pollution emissions fall below what is released by existing facilities on a per unit basis. Older plants that produce high levels of pollution then could be closed.

"This provision makes the GHG (greenhouse gases) targets reachable by all parties currently planning to build facilities in Nevada, while maintaining the responsibility to offset GHG emissions and encouraging the development of renewable resources," the report states.

Three companies, including the parent company of Nevada Power Co., want to build coal-fired power plants in White Pine and Lincoln counties that would produce nearly 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

The plants would send 48 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air during their 75-year expected lifetimes.

Under a memorandum of understanding with the state, the plants do not have to capture carbon emissions until capture technology becomes available at a reasonable price.

After the meeting, Gibbons said he would not commit to supporting any of the dozens of recommendations until he has time to review and assess their effect.

One recommendation calls for the establishment of a permanent committee on climate change. Gibbons appointed members of the climate change committee in April 2007. Members include county air quality officials, utility executives and regulators and conservation representatives.

Gibbons said his goal is not to have more power plants burning fossil fuels and selling electricity to other states, but to develop renewable-energy facilities and close older plants that spew out dirty emissions.

"My goal is to make Nevada a greener state, energy-wise," said Gibbons, adding that he wants to export renewable energy to other states, not electricity from fossil fuel-burning plants.

Gibbons said he could support legislation, if it did not run afoul of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, that states the main beneficiary of new energy resources would be the citizens of Nevada. The committee is calling for a law that requires companies to prove new plants are needed to "ensure reliable utility service to customers in this state."

Gibbons said the state does not have a lot of financial resources to start many of the panel's recommendations.

That disturbed former Public Utilities Commissioner Steve Wiel, state representative of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.

"We take serious offense with your total lack of commitment," Wiel said in a letter to Gibbons. "You apparently are unwilling to spend the money it will take or to mobilize the government agencies, business and citizens of Nevada."

Without a commitment from state government, Wiel said, "there is clearly no hope" for the state to minimize the effects of climate change.

Wiel called for Nevada to set energy efficiency goals that reduce the need for additional electricity and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

He said that the governors of Arizona and Colorado have started plans to reduce total greenhouse emissions. Like Nevada, they are growing states, Wiel said. Colorado's plan calls for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020.

Committee member Jo Ann Kelly, a member of the Public Utilities Commission, said power plants that emit lower levels of pollutants have been opened in Nevada in the past five years. But she said she could not give a date when total greenhouse gas emissions will start to drop.

"We are a growing state. We are adding megawatts to our portfolio," she said. "We will do our share to clean up the environment, but we still have to account for the fact that we are growing."

If the power plants in White Pine County are built, Kelly said, then Nevada Power could close its Reid Gardner plant in Moapa Valley.

The Environmental Integrity Project last year identified Reid Gardner as the dirtiest power plant in the nation.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.