WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, May 24, 2007
State Denies Biomass Plant Permit

State Environment Department denied an air quality permit for the project that would produce electricity by burning trees, shrubs and other woody materials
Contact: John Brennan Mountain View Telegraph

The biomass power plant proposed for Torrance County suffered a "serious setback" Tuesday when the state Environment Department denied an air quality permit for the project.

The 35-megawatt plant would produce electricity by burning trees, shrubs and other woody materials harvested from forests and rangeland.

NMED conducted public hearings for the air quality permit on March 13 and April 10 in Estancia, and some public comment in opposition to the proposal was received.

According to the hearing officer's report, however, NMED's Air Quality Bureau supported approval of the permit allowing construction and operation of the plant "with conditions necessary to protect human health and welfare and the environment."

The order signed Tuesday by Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry said the permit was denied because the application "lacked sufficient information regarding natural gas emissions."

The plant would burn natural gas for up to eight hours each time the boiler starts up, according to an NMED news release.

David Cohen, president of Western Water and Power Production LLC, the company proposing to build the $74 million plant south of Estancia, pointed out that the boiler would be started only once a year, and the emissions would amount to "one-tenth of 1 percent of the total amount of BTUs generated by that project."

Cohen said he was shocked by the permit denial.

"I can't believe that," Cohen said Tuesday. "I'm shocked by it. The evidence was clear, it was substantial evidence and the department supported it. This is a serious setback to the project, and I'm not sure what we're going to do from this point."

Cohen said the environmental group WildEarth Guardians had asked NMED to look at the natural gas emissions of the plant.

"The issue was raised by WildEarth Guardians, but the department staff just rejected that," Cohen said. "Emissions from the project are extremely low as determined in the record."

Bryan Bird, forest program coordinator for WildEarth Guardians, said Wednesday that biomass is an "unfortunate" component of Congress' clean energy bill, and that he is pleased the state Environment Department chose to slow down the permitting process.

"We hope this will result in the state ... taking a closer look at air pollution and other environmental impacts of burning our forests," Bird said.

Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission