Power plants on fast track

Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001 | 11:28 a.m.

Dozens of interested -- and some concerned -- residents turned out Tuesday night to check out proposals to build a half-dozen new power plants in the Las Vegas Valley.

The meeting was part of an effort by the Bureau of Land Management to expedite the approval process for building new plants, a process that usually takes more than a year.

Jacqueline Gratton, BLM project manager, said the agency is responding locally to the energy crisis in California -- a crisis that has seen some electric bills double and blackouts caused by limited electric supply.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has warned that although unlikely, it is possible that Nevada could face a similar power shortfall this summer when thousands of homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners.

The plans presented Tuesday won't help this summer's energy woes, but the plants could help in two to three years.

All six companies seeking BLM rights-of-way to build their plants will be processed at the same time, Gratton said. Although the plants would be built on private land, the companies will have to build transmission lines, gas pipelines and possibly water lines through federal land, and that requires a federal environmental assessment process.

All of the proposals presented were for power plants in the Apex area northeast of the Las Vegas Valley. The BLM also is evaluating proposals to build another natural-gas fired plant in Primm and a wind-plant near Sandy Valley, but those plans weren't presented at the meeting.

If all six are built, they will nearly triple the generating capacity in the state. According to Nevada Power, power plants in the state now produce about 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for the winter time.

In the summer, however, demand swells to between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts, forcing Nevada to import electricity from Utah and other states.

Four of the companies with presentations at the meeting plan to build "merchant" power plants, which would sell power to any wholesale bidder willing to pay the companies' price. Those companies could sell to distributors in California, Nevada or any other state.

Gratton said the BLM hopes to receive public comment until Feb. 19 that will help the agency determine what kind of environmental documentation it will require from the applying companies.

Gratton said the BLM is trying to streamline the process to get new plants on the regional grid as soon as possible, but the reviews mandated by federal law will still thoroughly screen for environmental, cultural or paleontological effects.

"We are not waving any environmental law or regulation at all," she said.

Environmentalists who attended the meeting, however, have their doubts. They are concerned that Nevada will get air and water pollution from new power plants while the electricity will flow to California.

Jeff van Ee, a Las Vegas environmental activist who serves on a county air quality committee, said he is concerned that the effects on the region's environment will be overlooked in the panicky reaction to the California crisis.

All of the proposed plants presented at Tuesday's meeting would be fueled by natural gas, he noted. Although cleaner than coal-fired plants already working in Southern Nevada, the plants still put exhaust into the atmosphere.

Van Ee said that could contribute to air quality problems, particularly if new federal standards for ozone are applied in the Las Vegas Valley.

Officials with local air quality agencies say it may be difficult for the area to avoid breaking the revised federal standard for ozone, a colorless, odorless pollutant associated with respiratory problems. These plants would make the ozone problem worse, van Ee said.

Van Ee also objected to two things he said were missing from the meeting: A focus on renewable energy, such as wind and geothermal, and efforts to conserve energy and use it more efficiently.

He said people from Nevada and California will see better results a lot more quickly by cutting down on energy usage immediately.

But some of the people attending the meeting said they would be happy to see the new plants.

"I think it's a necessity," said Vivian Lewis, a Moapa resident who looked over the proposal for two plants near her town. "I like to turn on my lights. Don't you?"

Lewis said she hopes power plant construction will bring jobs and investment to her community in Clark County's northeast.

But Lewis said one thing surprised her.

"I had no idea there were so many being proposed," she said.

Jim Rexroad, development manager for Houston-based Duke Energy, said the need for new power isn't just in California. The entire West has a reserve capacity of about 5 percent, he said.

The goal for a stable market would be about 10 percent, Rexroad said.

He said Las Vegas' demand for energy grows by 200 to 300 megawatts a year. The proposed Duke plant, in the Apex industrial project area, would supply 1,200 megawatts.

"That's four years, and it's all consumed" by Las Vegas alone, Rexroad said.

If it passes federal, state and county muster, the Duke plant would go online in the summer of 2003, he said.

The other plants presented by other companies have similar timelines.

Paul Hurt, environmental affairs manager for PG&E National Energy Group, said it would take his company about 18 months for approval and two years to build a power plant proposed for the Apex area, just outside the Moapa Indian Reservation.