WildEarth Guardians

Monday, February 14, 2011
Four Corners Plan Falls 75% Short of Clean Air

WildEarth Guardians Calls for a Complete Transition Away from Coal at the Nation's Largest Source of Air Pollution
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

Denver, CO—WildEarth Guardians today cautioned that a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal released late last Friday to shut down only the smallest portions of the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant in northwestern New Mexico will continue to leave the region vulnerable to dangerous levels of air pollution.

“This is a great first step forward, but instead of investing in cleaner energy, the EPA’s plan will end up spending millions only to make coal less dirty,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “It’s a half-baked plan that will keep the Four Corners region cloaked in smog and farther away from clean energy solutions.”

The EPA’s proposal comes as concerns over air pollution from Four Corners are coming to a head.  The plant, which is primarily owned and operated by Arizona Public Service Co., is the nation’s largest source of air pollution, every year releasing tens of thousands of tons of toxic pollutants including mercury, smog-forming nitrogen oxides, haze-forming sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide.  It also burdens the region with more than $300 million in health costs, including 44 premature deaths, 66 heart attacks, and 800 asthma attacks (see Clean Air Task Force data here).

To boot, the plant is the largest contributor to haze pollution in National Parks in the country, marring vistas in Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, and six other National Parks in the southwest.

Read WildEarth Guardians’ fact sheet on the Four Corners Power Plant here. 

The EPA’s proposal would largely adopt a plan by Arizona Public Service Co. to keep the plant’s largest coal-fired boilers indefinitely.  The plant consists of five 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. 

In essence, the EPA’s plan would keep nearly 75% of the Four Corners Power Plant burning coal.

Combined, Units 4 and 5 release more than 26,000 tons of nitrogen oxide pollution (61% of the plant’s total)—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).  The Units 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 the EPA has proposed 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 can’t and won’t change the fact that coal is the dirtiest source of energy,” said Nichols.  “And with clean energy solutions at our fingertips—including the jobs they provide—it just doesn’t make sense to keep the Four Corners region dependent on coal.”

The EPA’s proposal kicks off a public comment period that will end on May 2, 2011.  The EPA has also scheduled public hearings for March 29 in Shiprock, NM, March 30 in Fruitland, NM, March 30 in Farmington, NM, and March 31 in Durango, CO.  More information on the EPA’s proposal can be found here.

WildEarth Guardians will be calling on the EPA to set a deadline for the Four Corners Power Plant to fully transition away from coal and toward cleaner sources of energy.