Reid vows to shut off coal-fired plant plan

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he will “do everything I can” to stop three proposed coal-fired power plants near Ely and Mesquite, welcome news to conservation groups wary of the pollution the plants would send downwind to Utah.

The three plants – one a public utility, the others private businesses – would generate about 3,900 megawatts of power, enough for more than 1 million households. They also would emit toxic substances that would quickly cross the state line and head for Utah cities.
“These plants present a direct threat to the airshed here in Utah,” said Dave Becker, staff attorney for Western Resource Advocates in Salt Lake City. “They certainly shouldn’t be built in the way they are proposed.”

In a letter dated Monday, Reid, the four-term Nevada Democrat, told Nevada Power/Sierra Pacific Resources, the LS Power Group, Dynegy Inc. and Sithe Global Power that he would use his considerable congressional power to block their construction plans.

“Because I believe that developing renewable energy in Nevada is far preferable to coal for the sake of our economy, public health and the environment, I will use every means at my disposal to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Nevada that do not capture and permanently store greenhouse gas emissions,” he wrote in the letter, released by conservation groups and media outlets on Thursday.

Salt Lake Tribune