Thursday, June 14, 2001 | 11:09 a.m.
Sen. Harry Reid is submitting a bill today to allow a controversial hydroelectric generating station to be built in the hills near Red Rock, Reid's staff and the company seeking the federal approval said.
The bill is necessary to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the authorization to extend a license to build the plant, a yearlong-dormant effort planned by Blue Diamond Power Partners, a joint venture of Japanese-based multinational Mitsubishi Corp. and Creamer and Noble, a Utah engineering company.
The partnership's existing license to construct the plant expires Saturday.
The move comes a week after the Clark County Commission withdrew from consideration a zoning request from the partnership to build the plant. The company and county legal staff argued that the commission did not have the authority to deny the project.
Instead, the FERC is probably the sole agency that determines whether the plant will be built, Assistant District Attorney Rob Warhola told commissioners last week.
Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said after the meeting that it was necessary to pull the proposal from county consideration because it didn't have the votes to win approval.
Denial of the zoning requests could have precipitated a legal fight that the county would lose, Commissioner Erin Kenny said.
Environmentalists are adamantly opposed to the hydroelectric plant, which would be built on hills west of Las Vegas a few miles south of the Red Rock Conservation Area.
Last week they promised to fight the plant with a lawsuit, if necessary. Wednesday they promised to fight the plant in Congress. They also expressed disappointment with Reid, generally an advocate regarding environmental issues.
"We're surprised and shocked," said Jeff van Ee, a Las Vegas environmental activist.
"It's very disappointing. We're going to see if we can talk to Sen. Reid," said Peggy Pierce, vice chairwoman of the conservation committee of the local arm of the Sierra Club.
Nathan Naylor, Reid's press secretary, defended the bill.
"We're trying to keep the options open for Southern Nevada's energy needs," he said.
Without the extension, the hydroelectric plants would be dead, he said.
Reid catapulted to the second-ranking majority member in the Senate this month after successfully negotiating the defection of a Republican colleague in the formerly evenly split upper house.
FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller said her agency, governed by a five-person board, will review the application for an extension following legislation and make an ultimate decision "as expeditiously as possible," but said she could not give a more definitive timeline.
Donald Clarke, a Washington, D.C., attorney specializing in hydroelectric plants, said the FERC approval would be automatic with the bill's passage. Clarke said he has successfully championed 15 to 18 similar bills in Congress to extend FERC deadlines.
"FERC grants these extensions," he said. "It is not an opportunity to adjudicate the merits (of the plant) ... Really, the approvals are fundamentally completed for this project."
But Naylor, for Reid, said the bill would only extend debate on the issue, not end it.
"Obviously, this is a contentious issue," he said. "There are many unresolved issues involving a variety of interest groups, and all of these issues should be addressed."
The Blue Diamond project would not be a primary generating facility, but instead provide up to 400 megawatts of "peaking" power during high demand periods -- enough for about 200,000 homes in the Las Vegas Valley during hot summer months.
Two reservoirs on 175 acres leased from the federal Bureau of Land Management would essentially act as a giant battery. The partnership would buy low-cost power at low-use times, pumping water uphill.
During high-use periods, the water would run back downhill, powering a turbine that generates power for sale back on the grid.
Executives with the partnership argue that the plant would be a clean, efficient way to guarantee power during peak demand periods. They also say that the impact to the surrounding area, especially the heart of the Red Rock conservation area, would be minimal.
Opponents to the plant include former Rep. James Bilbray, D-Nev., who sponsored the 1993 legislation that expanded the Red Rock National Conservation Area -- and included land for the proposed hydroelectric plant.
Bilbray said in a letter to Clark County commissioners last month that he never intended that the plant go forward without "all of the necessary licenses and permits by the end of 1999."
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