www.doodadesertrock.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 25, 2009

DOODA (NO) DESERT ROCK RELIEF AT US EPA ENVIRONMENTAL APPEALS BOARD PSD PERMIT DECISION

“We are relieved to hear that the US EPA Environmental Appeals Board finally granted the agency’s request to take back the clean air permit for the failed Desert Rock Power Plant. It confirms our position that the initial permit grant was ill-considered and premature,” said Elouise Brown, President of Dooda Desert Rock. The organization, a grassroots Navajo effort to block a third coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners area, continues to resist and have a very active encampment for almost three years.
“The appeals board decision confirms our belief, echoed in the British news magazine The Economist, that Desert Rock is dead. Recent efforts in Congress to freeze the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to deal with carbon dioxide as a pollutant shows that Big Coal also recognizes that polluting energy is on its way out. We have a specific reason for gratitude at the return of the permit,” Brown said.

“When the air permit was initially under consideration the San Francisco Region 9 US EPA office found a study that indicates that the two existing power plants are adversely affecting the health of Navajos in the Shiprock Area. Cold weather and the Hogback formation pull pollution down into Shiprock and that causes Navajos to seek medical treatment for respiratory illness at rates far higher than the rest of the population in the Four Corners area. Children and the elderly are affected at a rate of ten times the rest of the population. The EPA warned the Bureau of Indian Affairs about the situation and told it to act, but it did nothing. We want something done about existing health risks now.”
“While we believe that the power plant is dead, the debate continues. There are many issues to address, including the fact that ordinary Navajos would get no economic benefit from the plant because local infrastructure was ignored in planning. At minimum, we want the health issue addressed first, and in a way that satisfies us that the health of Navajos is being protected. If anyone doubts what is going on in Shiprock, just drive north toward Shiprock on a cold day.”

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NM_NAVAJO_POWER_PLANT_NMOL-?SITE=NMSAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Sep 26, 10:28 AM EDT

EPA to reconsider Navajo power plant permit
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will have to reconsider an air permit the agency issued last year for a proposed $3 billion coal-fired power plant on the nation’s largest American Indian reservation, a federal appeals board has ruled.

The decision by the Environmental Appeals Board in part grants a request by regional EPA officials who wanted to take another look at parts of the permit for the $3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico.

The board, in a ruling released Friday, also said the EPA abused its discretion by not considering integrated gasification combined cycle technology in its analysis of best available pollution control systems for the plant.
“The board concludes that remand of the permit in its entirety on this ground is warranted because reconsideration of the issue could have overarching impacts on the rest of the (agency’s) analysis,” the ruling states.

Desert Rock critics said Friday they were thrilled with the board’s decision.

Environmentalists and the state of New Mexico have argued that Desert Rock - which would be the third coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners region - would further degrade air quality, harm the environment and impact human health.

“This is a coal plant that should never be built,” said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance.

The Navajo Nation’s Dine Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global LLC have partnered to build the 1,500-megawatt power plant south of Farmington. They have said Desert Rock would be one of the cleanest coal-burning plants in the nation and it would generate more than $50 million in annual revenues and create jobs on a reservation where more than half of people are unemployed.

George Hardeen, a spokesman for Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., said the tribe waited years for EPA to issue the air permit in the first place and now the reconsideration mandated by the board will push back economic self-sustainability for the Navajos even further.

“While the country has been experiencing economic hardships for past year, the Navajos have been experiencing it for the past many decades and we’ve been looking forward to getting started on Desert rock to put the people to work,” Hardeen said. “This is more than just a project to sell electricity, it’s to help jump start the Navajo economy.”

At issue in the board’s ruling is whether Desert Rock will be outfitted with the best technology to control emissions. Some critics have said developers should consider integrated gasification combined cycle technology, or IGCC, which turns coal into gas that can be used to generate lower-emission electricity. The success of the technology depends on the type of coal that’s used and the location of the plant.

Jeff Holmstead, a partner with Bracewell & Giuliani, a law firm that represents Desert Rock developers, said gasification technology just won’t work in the high desert of northwestern New Mexico.

It could take many months and possibly another round of public comment for EPA to complete the required analysis on the air permit.

Aside from looking at coal gasification technology, the EPA plans to reassess the limits for particulate matter emissions, fully analyze methods for controlling hazardous emissions and finish consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about endangered species issues.

Amy Atwood, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that opposes the plant, said federal wildlife officials have raised questions about the vitality of endangered fish in the nearby San Juan River.

“The existing conditions are so bad for these fish that this plant may actually put them over the edge,” she said. “We’ll have to see what happens, but it’s at least theoretically possible that the plant may not be built because of those additional effects to already very struggling species.”