WildEarth Guardians

Friday, August 3, 2007
Decision to deny power plant permit must stand

WildEarth Guardians support the decision to deny an air quality permit for a 35 megawatt biomass power plant near Estancia
Contact: Steven Michel Western Resource Advocates

The following organizations - Western Resource Advocates, Community Action New Mexico, New Mexico Conference of Churches, Physicians for Social Responsibility, WildEarth Guardians, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environment New Mexico - support the decision by New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry to deny an air quality permit to Western Water and Power for a 35 megawatt biomass power plant near Estancia.

The secretary denied the permit because the record lacked support for finding that natural gas used at the plant would not trigger greater regulatory scrutiny under an air quality provision called Prevention of Significant Deterioration or PSD.

Regardless of natural gas use, however, the plant is predicted to emit hundreds of tons of pollution into the air, including particulates and 230 tons per year of nitrogen oxides, a major contributor to ground-level ozone, which causes and exacerbates childhood asthma.

Moreover, the plant is designed to use fresh-cut wood from forests and rangelands as a fuel source to generate electricity.

This is not waste-wood that has to be removed anyway; much of it is from forests that would be cleared and used for rangeland if the power plant is built.

In a dry and arid climate like New Mexico’s, we must preserve our forests for their important services, such as carbon sequestration and water filtration - not burn them for electricity.

Biomass is a useful technology for electricity production when it is properly designed, uses true waste-fuel sources, controls emissions, and is sensitive to proper forest management practices.

The power plant that was denied a permit by Secretary Curry is none of these things. It is not a “clean” energy resource.

Secretary Curry’s decision has been appealed to the Environmental Improvement Board. We urge the Board to uphold the Secretary’s decision.

Steven Michel is the senior staff attorney for Western Resource Advocates in Santa Fe.

Copyright 2007 The New Mexican - Reprinted with permission