Editorial: Protect a great park

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007 | 6:58 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing to insert a provision into Congress' spending bill that would increase federal protection of Great Basin National Park's air quality and, as a result, thwart proposals to build new coal-fired power plants in eastern Nevada.

The wording that Reid, D-Nev., proposed last week to the must-pass budget bill would grant Great Basin what is known as Class I protection under the Clean Air Act.

The designation, created by a 1977 amendment to the Clean Air Act, says Congress' intent is "to preserve, protect and enhance the air quality in national parks, national wilderness areas, national monuments, national seashores and other areas of special national or regional ... value."

This kind of protection does not, of course, allow for building coal-fired power plants in the proximity of Class I national parks. Currently, 48 national parks carry the Class I designation.

Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, both Nevada Republicans, have heaped criticism on Reid's proposal, saying it has little to do with protecting Great Basin National Park and is mostly about keeping coal-fired plants out of Nevada.

Actually, it works to do both. Reid championed the 1986 creation of Great Basin National Park, located just west of Baker near the Nevada-Utah border. The 77,000-acre park encompasses Lehman Caves, which have been a national monument since 1922. It makes sense that Reid would want to add protections to a park that he was instrumental in creating.

But it also is no surprise that Reid would work to prevent construction of air-fouling coal plants in Nevada. He opposes - as we do - the addition of any more of these plants in our state.

The states that border Nevada have numerous Class I designations bestowed upon their national parks, monuments, forests and wilderness areas, while Nevada has only one such designation - for the Jarbidge Wilderness Area near the state's northeast corner.

The air quality of Nevada's Great Basin National Park is no less worthy of protection than California's Yosemite or Utah's Bryce Canyon. And, as Great Basin is Nevada's only national park, the state's entire congressional delegation should be fighting for this added protection.