Plans to Shutdown Four Corners Power Plant Units Falls Short of Protecting Clean Air

WildEarth Guardians Calls on Arizona Public Service Co. to Fully Power Past Coal

Denver, CO- Nov. 9. WildEarth Guardians today applauded Arizona Public Service Company’s recent announcement that it plans to shutdown Units 1-3 at the Four Corners Power Plant in northwestern New Mexico, but cautioned that the move to keep Units 4 and 5 in operation would continue leave the region vulnerable to air pollution.

“This is a half-baked solution to the urgent need to protect our clean air, our climate, and the health of our communities from dirty energy.”  said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “Although laudable, this is simply not enough.  Arizona Public Service needs to do more to power past coal and toward clean energy in the Four Corners.”

Every year, the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant releases tens of thousands of tons of toxic pollutants including mercury, smog-forming nitrogen oxides, haze-forming sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide.  The plant has a generating capacity of 2,270 megawatts and consists of five coal-fired boilers.  Unit 1 and 2 each have a capacity of 190 megawatts, Unit 3 has a capacity of 253 megawatts, and Units 4 and 5 each have a capacity of 818 megawatts.

The latest proposal would keep Units 4 and 5, the largest coal-fired boilers at the plant open indefinitely.  Combined, these units release more than 26,000 tons of nitrogen oxide pollution, as much as is released by more than 1.3 million passenger vehicles (according to the EPA, a standard car releases 38.2 pounds of nitrogen oxides, http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/f00013.htm).  They also release more than 10,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to deforesting 86,000 acres of forest annually.  Click here to see emissions by unit at the Four Corners Power Plant.

Although Arizona Public Service has committed to pollution control upgrades at Units 4 and 5, even with new controls, the plant would continue to be one of the largest sources of air pollution in the region.

“Better pollution controls don’t change the fact that coal is the dirtiest source of energy,” said Nichols.  “And with clean energy solutions at our fingertips, it just doesn’t make sense to keep the Four Corners region dependent on coal.”

Arizona Public Service Company’s proposal comes as Southern California Edison announced it would divest its 48% ownership of the Four Corners Power Plant and as concerns over public health and the environment continue to mount against the power plant.  In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan to retrofit the power plant with state of the art pollution controls to reduce haze in the region.  Increasingly, mercury pollution from the power plant is linked with water contamination in the San Juan River drainage and the plant is one of the largest contributors to the region’s smog pollution.

Read the Four Corners Power Plant Factsheet here.

 


 

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