Monitor follow-up: New Mexico coal plant set back

A proposed 'dirty' power plant loses support in New Mexico – for now.

from the May 3, 2007 edition

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Opponents, including Navajos living near the proposed 1,500-megawatt plant site and a coalition of religious and environmental groups, say enough is enough. The area already hosts three such power plants. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish recommends not eating fish caught in area waterways because of high mercury content. Coal-fired power plants are the primary source of airborne mercury. "We're all for economic development," says Elouise Brown, president of Doodá Desert Rock, an organization against the plant. "Just please do it right – without killing us."

For reasons no one can quite explain, during the past year "global warming" has become a catchphrase and "carbon emissions" a badge of shame. Almost immediately after the Democrats took control of Congress last year, there has been talk of carbon regulation.

Some 150 new coal-fired power plants are planned in the US, according to the Department of Energy, the vast majority utilizing pulverized rather than gasified coal technology. This is a point of contention in the proposed Desert Rock project. Gasified coal plants can capture CO2 and other pollutants much more efficiently, making them a favorite of those pushing for cleaner coal-fired plants. But Desert Rock will not use coal gasification; it will instead employ an advanced version of pulverized coal technology.

A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study suggested that gasified coal plants, which are some 20 percent more expensive up front, only become economical once carbon capture becomes part of the equation. And this is the problem, says Mr. Maisano: Environmentalists expect companies to proceed as if carbon-capping legislation was already in place. But firms looking to do business now cannot be governed by nonexistent legislation, which, if ever enacted, may take years to wrangle out.

"My assessment is that our project was a victim of a larger discussion right now," says Maisano. "The whole debate has taken on a life of its own, an irrational exuberance, and nobody is thinking how difficult it is to do the hard work of passing carbon regulation."

Changes seem to be near. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D) of New Mexico and Barbara Boxer (D) of California have warned utilities that are building power plants with older technology not to expect to be "grandfathered in" when new carbon regulations hit. In February, two private equity firms seeking to buy the Texas utility company TXU Corp. conferred with environmental groups before finalizing the $45 billion deal. Afterward, the firms agreed not to build eight of TXU's 11 planned coal-fired plants. And in April, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency had to regulate CO2. As a pollutant, it said, carbon dioxide fell under the purview of the Clean Air Act.

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