Hydroelectric plant’s plans dead

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

A years-dormant and once-controversial proposal to build a water-powered hydroelectric plant on the hills outside the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is dead, a lawyer for the controlling interest said Tuesday.

Paul Larsen, representing Mitsubishi Corp., said Maryland businessman Wayne Rogers' letter last month to a federal agency did not accurately represent the status of the project. Rogers' letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the project would gain new life with upcoming legislation.

But Larsen said Tuesday that the Mitsubishi subsidiary Diamond Generating has surrendered its lease of 175 acres of federal land and is now doing required environmental mediation work on the site.

"As far as we are concerned, this project is dead and we're just shoveling dirt on the grave," Larsen said. "We're not pleased with Mr. Rogers."

Rogers, president of Maryland-based Synergics Inc. and a former chairman of the Maryland State Democratic Party, told the Energy Regulatory Commission that needed federal congressional legislation would likely move this spring that would allow the project. Synergics' website describes the company as a water-power consulting and engineering firm.

Rogers is in Vietnam and not available for comment, his company's receptionists said.

Larsen said, "Wayne Rogers is only a 25 percent interest and is operating without authority or cooperation of the controlling interests of the project."

The plant would have acted as a sort of giant energy storage system, or battery. Operators would buy low-cost power at low-use times to pump water uphill between two huge reservoirs. During peak use periods, water would run back downhill, driving generators and provide power for air conditioners and other needs.

Environmentalists, Red Rock enthusiasts and others have battled the project for years and promised to fight any renewed effort to build the project.