Panel lets power plants proceed

CARSON CITY -- A petition from seven environmental organizations that sought to stop three companies from constructing coal-fired power plants unless they control carbon dioxide emissions was rejected Friday by the Nevada Environmental Commission.

But commissioners then quickly voted 7-0 to require the state Division of Environmental Protection to draw up "memorandums of understanding" requiring the companies to capture carbon dioxide once the technology becomes commercially available.

Earlier in the hearing, representatives from Sierra Pacific Resources, LS Power Associates and Sithe Global Power testified that the technology to capture carbon dioxide won't be available at a reasonable price until at least 2017.

Carbon dioxide emissions are produced when power plants burn coal to generate electricity. Some scientists contend it is the key greenhouse gas emission that causes global warming.

"It is our desire to add this technology once it is economically feasible," said Tony Sanchez, a Sierra Pacific Resources vice president.

Sanchez and representatives for the other companies said they are setting aside land next to their power plants for equipment to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions when the technology is developed.

But he was not entirely pleased when the commission decided to force the companies to eventually contain greenhouse gas emissions.

"If it costs $10 billion (for the new technology), does that mean it is commercially available?" he asked.

Lew Dodgion, the Environmental Commission chairman, asked Division of Environmental Protection staff to work on the language in the memorandums. The commission might review the language and adopt it at a future meeting. Dodgion is the former director of the division.

Charles Benjamin, director of Western Resource Advocates, filed the petition on behalf of seven environmental groups that want to delay the power plant construction. He was critical of the decision.

Lawyers like memorandums of understanding because they usually contain "weasel words" to allow companies to get around rules, he said.

Earlier Benjamin testified the three power plants would send 48 million tons of carbon dioxide into the sky during their expected 75-year lifetimes.

"Look at the impacts if you do nothing," Benjamin said. "We are urging you to take action today."

Because Nevada has no regulation controlling greenhouse gas emissions, Benjamin said, out-of-state companies are being enticed to construct pollution-spewing power plants that will generate electricity for residents elsewhere.

Global warming has contributed to the extended drought and wildfires that plague the state and probably will get worse in coming years, he said.

But representatives from the attorney general's office said the Environmental Commission lacked the legal authority to suspend the issuing of permits to allow the companies to construct the power plants. The companies have been given permits to begin work on initial stages of the plants.

Sierra Pacific Resources, the parent company of Nevada Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Power Co., wants to construct two 750-megawatt coal-fired electrical generating plants in the White Pine County town of McGill. The first plants might be completed by 2012.

LS Power Associates wants to construct three 530-megawatt plants near McGill, the first of which might open in 2011. Sithe Global Power wants to construct a 750 megawatt plant in southern Lincoln County, near Mesquite.

Gov. Jim Gibbons expressed opposition to the move by the environmental groups.

Gibbons in a letter wrote that it was not fair to stop the plants when they already "have invested years and millions of dollars in facility design and the permitting process."

He expressed concern about climate change and noted he has appointed committees to investigate developing renewable resources and to look at how greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced in Nevada.

Gibbons signed a legislative bill in June that requires the state to track and inventory the amount of greenhouse gases released in the state.

But he said adopting "non-science based emission limits" would be a mistake.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson testified that the commission should not be dictating how much pollution is permitted from power plants. Instead he said the Legislature should make that decision.