Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SUN EDITORIAL:

Embracing greenhouse gases

Panel charged with advising on how to reduce emissions does just the opposite

A committee appointed 16 months ago by Gov. Jim Gibbons to recommend ways to reduce greenhouse gases in Nevada supports plans by three companies to build coal-fired power plants in the eastern part of the state.

Its final report, released last week, acknowledges that the use of coal in electricity-generating plants “adds a significant amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere” ...

Nevertheless, the report concluded that “coal remains the preferred option for the next ... electricity generating plants” in Nevada.

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas, one that is building up in the atmosphere far faster than it can be absorbed by plants and ocean water. More than 30 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions — heavy contributors to global warming — come from coal-fired power plants. The projects proposed by the three companies would emit tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide over the next several decades.

The report is not entirely without merit, as it recommends the state support many green initiatives. But in our view it is seriously flawed for its contradictory conclusion about the proposed coal plants.

You cannot reduce greenhouse gases if you give the go-ahead to coal-fired power plants, which is what this report does.

There is language in the report about reducing the statewide “intensity” of coal-fired plant emissions, but that sounds like codswallop to us. Such reduced intensity would largely depend on closing existing coal-fired plants after the new ones open, when there would be no guarantee of that happening.

Also troubling is that public comment taken by the committee was not analyzed or even incorporated into the final report, as reported Friday by Las Vegas Sun reporter Phoebe Sweet.

The report reflects neither public opinion nor a strategy to adopt any other state policy than one that can only increase greenhouse gases.

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