Official deflects criticism of plant

A Sierra Pacific Resources executive on Thursday said federal criticism of a competitor’s coal-fired power plant in Ely doesn’t foreshadow similar problems for the utility company’s own coal-fired project.

Sierra Pacific Resources Senior Vice President Roberto Denis said the Environmental Protection Agency seemed to be criticizing the lack of any documented need for the 1,590-megawatt White Pine Energy Station that LS Power plans to build outside of Ely.

“One of the main criticisms was that there was no demonstrated need for the power and the facility,” Denis said Thursday.

However, Sierra Pacific Resources, parent of Nevada Power Co., has proven the need for its 1,500-megawatt Ely Energy Center and won the backing of the Public Utilities Commission for the utility project, Denis said.

The utilities commission has given the company preliminary approval to spend the first $300 million needed for the $3.8 billion utility plant and a related transmission line.

“EPA is concerned that the density of new coal-burning plants proposed in Nevada is in excess of the demonstrated need for energy throughout the Western states,” the federal agency said in written comments filed with the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM is the lead federal agency for the environmental impact statement being prepared for the White Pine Energy Station.

The EPA suggests LS Power consider a coal-gasification plant, which the EPA said could reduce carbon dioxide emissions, cut water consumption and produce less waste ash.

Critics privately say they can see little difference in the two types of projects. Both are near Ely and both will burn pulverized coal, which spews out massive quantities of carbon dioxide.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has lambasted both coal-fired power plant proposals and a third facility being proposed near Mesquite, citing environmental concerns and the availability of renewable power resources in Nevada.

Analysts say Reid not only has the ability to reach the public with criticism of the coal-fired plants, but he also probably can act to block or slow the Nevada coal-fired power plant projects, just as he has used his power to thwart development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site at the Nevada Test Site.

“(Reid has) a vision of Nevada as a leader of renewable energy,” spokesman Jon Summers said. “We have it all — solar, wind, geothermal. Each day that we go without tapping into those resources, we’re wasting energy.”

The EPA letter, dated June 22, predated Reid’s release of a late July letter opposing the coal plants, but the EPA takes some positions similar to Reid’s.

The agency criticizes the environmental impact statement for LS Power’s project for failing to review how energy conservation could reduce the need for new power plants, and the EPA urges the environmental report to discuss why geothermal power could not be used as an alternative to a coal plant.

Eric Crawford, project development director for LS Power, said the BLM produced the environmental impact statement although LS Power provided money for the statement.

“The EPA is commenting on an BLM document,” Crawford said. “It is their document because they signed off on it.”

He suggested calling an BLM official in Nevada for a comment, but BLM officials here could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Crawford also criticized the EPA letter.

“A lot of the things we see in the letter is a lack of familiarity with the project,” he said. “Some of their commentary was based on inaccurate interpretation of the information.”

The EPA commentary mentions Sempra Energy’s proposal to build the 1,450-megawatt Granite Fox coal power plant in Northern Nevada, a project that has been shelved, he said.

The EPA claims that the LS Power plant would potentially affect 440 acres of water and wetlands, which Crawford said is incorrect. The LS Power official said the power plant would affect only four acres permanently and two acres temporarily.

LS Power hopes to obtain necessary government permits so it can start construction in the second half of 2008 and open the first of three 530-megawatt coal power units by 2013.