Columnist Jon Ralston: County wrangles control over air quality

Wednesday, June 27, 2001 | 9:16 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the public affairs program "Face to Face" on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the Ralston Report. His column for the Sun appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston

IT'S NICE to have friends in high places.

Just ask Erin Kenny, the county commissioner who has engineered a silent but deadly transfer of power thanks to a longtime political relationship with the man closest to Gov. Kenny Guinn.

In so doing, Kenny has given the county even more authority over development in this valley (that sound you hear is a shudder through the building and construction industries) and infuriated city officials. Mayor Oscar Goodman has been fulminating for a couple of days over the county's incipient takeover of air quality oversight, including his claim Tuesday that by cutting out the cities and the Regional Planning Coalition, the county may flush taxpayer dollars and hard work "down the toilet."

Well, maybe. But the real issue here is whether the city can stop the county from overseeing air quality in Southern Nevada, which was supposed to be done by a regional board until the idea withered in the Legislature.

The authority to dispense air quality permits, considering that the Environmental Protection Agency's Damoclean sword is ready to slice federal funding if the locals don't get their act together, is the power to say yes or no to massive projects, from power plants to airports to other major uses.

Kenny, who once advocated the regional board but now sees no reason to share power with the cities, knows that. And she thinks there's nothing the incensed Goodman and others can do to change the governor's edict, which was issued last week. "It's done, it's over," she said matter-of-factly Tuesday.

Kenny moved swiftly when she saw the regional air quality board funding formula -- that infamous smog fee -- held hostage in the Assembly. She called her old colleague from the Assembly, Pete Ernaut, who like her has graduated from his legislative post to find a job that actually has some influence. Ernaut, who is the governor's consigliere, was happy to listen when his old friend asked him to persuade Guinn to sign over air quality authority to the county. Besides, Ernaut surely thought, why not just give it to the local yokels and let them take the hit if the EPA swoops in?

So Ernaut slipped a letter in front of Guinn before the governor took a brief vacation. The governor never saw the final version of the letter, but he knew the gist. And he's unlikely to relent now, especially because the county says it has a building, the money and the desire to take this over.

The governor's office basically believes the county was willing to step forward while the cities have only begun yelping after the fact.

Goodman plans to raise a ruckus at Thursday's Board of Health meeting, where the power shift will begin with an agenda item to set dates for giving the county the authority the governor says the largest government in the South should have. The question is whether he can get anywhere -- he says he plans to meet with the governor to try to get him to rescind the order, which the administration says he has the authority to do under the Clean Air Act. (The cities, by the way, are skeptical the governor can just do this by fiat.)

Think Guinn will listen to Goodman, whom he knows is being recruited to run against him? I think the answer is in the question.

Don't underestimate what kind of power we're talking about. For instance, Reliant Energy's Bighorn Peaking Power Plant is trying to get an air quality permit and has received backing from Kenny and Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, both of whom have urged Health District officials to act expeditiously.

But health district folks are worried about circumventing procedures to give the plant a permit because of its impact on the total amount of emissions that will be allowed. And there is this little project nearby called the Ivanpah airport, which Nevada's congressional delegation has touted as the greatest accomplishment here since Bugsy Siegel imagined a gambling paradise in the desert.

(Strange Coincidence Department: Ernaut is Reliant's legislative lobbyist. But he and Kenny both say Reliant's power plant permit never came up in their conversation. In fact, Kenny says she didn't even know Ernaut worked for Reliant. Actually, I think this was just a raw power play, as Kenny trampled the cities and got it on because of her connection to Ernaut.)

Herrera and Kenny just say they were acting out of the county's mandate to make sure that the valley has enough of a power supply. And Kenny says if the power plant is found to affect the airport, "it's dead."

Fair enough. But you now get a sense of what's at stake here as the county swallows air quality and it's the cities that are left choking.