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The coal-fired Reid Gardner Generating Station near Moapa is shown April 5, 2007. The spots near the smokestacks are “ghost” reflections of the lights on the plant, which can occur in digital cameras while shooting a point light source.
Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012 | 7:10 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is joined by members of the Moapa band of Paiutes and environmentalists as he calls for the closing of NV Energy's Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant during the National Clean Energy Summit 5.0 at the Bellagio Tuesday, August 7, 2012.
CARSON CITY — The federal Environmental Protection Agency has given the green light to NV Energy to continue operations at the coal burning Reid Gardner plant as long as it installs controls to reduce the air pollution.
The 63-page ruling signed by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson ignores the call by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the plant to close because of its pollution problems.
Jackson said the state and federal controls will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 4,000 tons per year.
The Sierra Club and the Moapa Band of Paiutes located near the plant had also called for its closure.
There were complaints the haze caused by the pollution contributed to the visibility at the Jarbidge Wilderness area and in the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.
The issue is also being played out before the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. The utility said the commission will continue to examine the issue of the life span of the plant. The Sierra Club says that enough conservation measures could be installed to offset the loss of power from Reid Gardner. But NV Energy says the calculations by the Sierra Club are faulty and would result in high rates even with consumers using less energy.
Rob Stillwell, spokesman for NV Energy, said the EPA ruling was good news. He emphasized this plan for the controls was authored by the Nevada EPA with the help of NV Energy.
Stillwell said this additional equipment to control the haze has not yet been installed. Stillwell said Reid Gardner was one of the cleanest plants in the nation before the federal EPA adopted its new regulations on haze control which this fight is about.
Reid had no comment on the EPA decision. Kristen Orthman, press secretary for Reid, said the senator still believes the plant should be closed. Earlier Reid had complained, "Each year for the last 47 years, more than 2.8 million tons of climate-changing carbon dioxide — not to mention thousands of pounds of toxins such as arsenic, mercury and lead — go up in the plant's four giant smokestacks."
A spokesman for the Sierra Club could not be reached for immediate comment.
The company issued a statement last week that new technology captures 99 percent of particulate emissions. The EPA said the new controls by NV Energy would collect 85 percent of the NO2 that is emitted.
The company also said hundreds of jobs are produced by the plant. The first two units started in 1965 and 1968. The third was added in 1996. The plant is able to produce enough electricity to serve approximately 335,000 Nevada households.
The EPA noted NV Energy buys its coal from Utah and it produces a high amount of NO2. It said the utility can consider acquiring its coal from other locations where the pollution factor is smaller.
The company estimates it will have to spend $26.5 million initially and then $4.3 million annually to comply with the EPA standards.
NV Energy needs to stop this ancient fossil energy and start helping this planet survive the mess coal has created with its toxins polluting the land, water and air. WE WANT RENEWABLE ENERGY NOW!
Harry Reid shut this plant down. Why is it still running. Maybe cause it meets the law.
Hearing Pinky lost a round is a great way to wake up in the morning. Harry has done more to destroy NV than any other person in recorded history.
Reid the Red - "champion" of the poor, my foot! By closing coal-fired plants and causing the cost of electricity to "necessarily skyrocket" (as Osama Obama promised), just who is Reid the Red inflicting the most financial pain on? The 1%ers or the 99%ers? Even you dopey leftists ought to be able to figure that one out. Those with the "least," will be finacially hurt the "most." Either Reid the Red is such a functionally illiterate when its comes to economics or he is cleverly trying to make more people dependent upon goverment handouts in the form of vouchers to help them pay the soaring costs created by the "greedy" executives at NV Power and other utility companies. Wake up, fellow Nevadans, before Reid the Red destroys us all financially as he tightens the grasp of the federal government on us. With Reid the Red in office, we needn't worry about the Taliban or Al Quaida. He'll do their job for them by destroying the America we used to know and cherished! Let's work on impeaching the SOB!
I think Reid and The Sierra Club should simply stop using electricity if they are that committed to their cause.
That's the problem with these left wing nuts who parade as environmental nazis, they are never satisfied. There is no compromise with them, that's why they need to just go away. Hey you Paiutes. How many of your family members make a living working there?
Coal fired energy is archaic and its time has passed. Time for both side of the aisle to get real about the need for nuclear power. Scary, perhaps, but really far less so than what coal ash is doing right now.
And here is a biscuit for the trolls: 'Osama' Obama killed bin Laden two years after taking office.
Bush wasn't able to do that in 7+ years.
Perhaps GHW wasn't able to accomplish the task because the Bush and bin Laden families did business together? Kind of like how the Bush family did business with the third reich.
If you want to troll and defame people and imply that we have enemies in our midst, skip the childish conspiracy theories employ a few of these really weird things called facts.
It's not too much of a shock they gave the ok to operate the plant. After all, most of the neighboring residents are just Indians...
My father worked at Reid Gardner for over 30 years. When he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure the doctor said that his lungs looked like someone who had worked in a coal mine for 30 years. When my dad passed away three years ago he had less than 25% use of his lungs.
When I was young he would point out the pollution to us as we drove the I-15. It pissed him off that on the weekends they didn't use the "scrubbers" because the EPA didn't monitor the plant on the weekends. Since his retirement in the '90s the EPA standards have been further relaxed. It isn't uncommon to see a gray haze that stretches along the I-15 from the Valley of Fire exit to the Logandale/Overton exit.
I can only imagine the myriad of health problems Reid Gardner has caused to it's employees, the Paiutes who live next door, and to the families who live in the Upper Muddy.
It is too late for my father. I can't go back and prevent him from breathing coal dust and poisoned air. He loved his job. He had no idea it was silently killing him.
It isn't too late for me to take a stand for humanity. I stand with the Paiutes and I thank them for waging war against a big energy bully. My father, if still alive, would stand proudly with the Paiutes too.
Audentes, you brought it up so I'll finish it. I didn't build my company but Obama killed Bin Laden....you need to step away from the kool-aid. The US Military and intelligence killed Bin Laden.
Obama leaked as much as his shallow conscience would allow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Xfti7qt...
Reid is breathing Nevada air from his D.C. penthouse?
Must be a heckuva wind carrying it that far for his presence here occurs only during election cycles.
Other than that, he could care less as amply demonstrated by his phantom foreclosure solution.
It will be quite amusing watching heavily subsidized wind and solar make up for coal plants. Until we have to pick up the bodies from the brownouts and blackouts. I suppose it is one way of reducing the elderly population.
A buildup of natural gas plants to replace coal would be the only alternative. Unfortunately that would take quite awhile in this country. In the meantime, the Sierra Club will continue pushing us back to being hunter and gatherers by closing coal plants first, and their lackey Reid will comply.
Audentes, who made afghanistan an 'ally'? Seven more dead today, troll on that.
http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2012/0...