WildEarth Guardians Takes Aim at Nevada Dirty Air Plan

State's Coal-fired Power Plants Given Green Light to Pollute at Expense of Clean Energy

Nevada—Late last week, Guardians filed its opening brief in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over a plan that would allow Nevada’s two coal-fired power plants to continue to foul the state’s clean air.

Ostensibly meant to reduce haze pollution in National Parks and wilderness areas, as well as to ensure overall reductions in air pollution for public health, the EPA’s plan effectively blocks clean energy.  The plan allows the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant in southern Nevada to release more air pollution than it currently does, while the North Valmy coal-fired power plant in northern Nevada would avoid any accountability to the health of air quality in the state. 

“This is dirty energy giveaways at their worst,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “Nevada’s two largest air polluters were not only given a free pass pollute, the EPA encouraged them to pollute more.  What a slap in the face to clean energy and to the health of parks and people throughout the west.”

Guardians lawsuit, which was filed last May with the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, challenges EPA’s approval of a Nevada plan to reduce haze pollution within and outside of the state.  The plan, which was required by the Clean Air Act, was approved last March.  Although the EPA claimed that it satisfied the Clean Air Act, it actually suffered from serious flaws, including:

  • The plan actually allows more sulfur dioxide pollution, a key haze forming pollutant and threat to public health, from the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant east of Las Vegas, even though the Clean Air Act requires emission reductions;
  • The plan fails to protect the Jarbidge Wilderness Area in northern Nevada, which under the Clean Air Act receives heightened protection from air pollution.  Although the North Valmy power plant in north-central Nevada was identified as a key contributor to haze pollution in the Jarbidge Wilderness, Nevada refused to consider even cost-effective air pollution controls at this power plant.
  • Even though the Clean Air Act requires protection of health-based air quality standards, the EPA’s plan completely ignores the impacts to these standards, effectively disregarding the impacts of air pollution from Reid Gardner and North Valmy to the health of Nevadans.

 “Nevada’s clean air plan maintains the dirty energy status and sadly, it’s public health and the environment—including many of America’s most iconic landscapes—that stand to lose most,” said Nichols.  “This dirty energy disaster needs to be overturned to make way for real clean energy solutions and real protection for the American West.”

Under the Clean Air Act, states have been obligated for several years to develop plans to reduce haze pollution, focusing on Class I areas, which include most National Parks and Wilderness Areas.  In Nevada, the Jarbidge Wilderness Area is the only Class I area, although several other Class I areas, including Grand Canyon National Park, lie within reach. 

To reduce haze, states were required to adopt a number of requirements.  Among them is a requirement that the oldest and dirtiest industrial facilities be retrofitted with cost-effective pollution controls.

In Nevada, the 612 megawatt Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant and 521 megawatt North Valmy coal-fired power plants are the most significant sources of air pollution in the state.  Every year, the plants release more than 6,000 tons of smog and haze forming nitrogen oxides, 5,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, and more than 7 million tons of carbon dioxide.  According to the Clean Air Task Force, the plants every year contributes to 14 premature deaths, 20 heart attacks, and 254 asthma attacks at a cost of more than $100 million annually (see Clean Air Task Force, “Death and Disease from Power Plants").

Under Nevada’s plan, which was approved by the EPA, the Reid Gardner power plant would be allowed to increase its sulfur dioxide pollution while the North Valmy power plant would not be required to control its air pollution at all. 

The EPA now has a chance to respond to Guardians’ lawsuit and a ruling is likely to be issued in 2013.  If successful, the lawsuit promises to ensure that the EPA and State of Nevada actually reduce air pollution from the Reid Gardner and North Valmy coal-fired power plants and more importantly, open the door for cleaner energy sources, such as wind and solar, to become more dominant in Nevada.


 

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