New Coalition Launches Campaign to Stop Sempra Coal-Fired Plant in Nevada
RENO, Nev., April 20 /PRNewswire/
A new coalition of local, regional and national environmental and community organizations called the Nevada Clean Energy Coalition today launched an aggressive campaign to stop the development of a 1,450 megawatt coal-fired power plant near Gerlach, Nevada, citing environmental, economic and health concerns.
"Nevada stands to lose too much if this plant is constructed," says
Susan Lynn, a spokesperson for the Coalition. "Why would we want to use up
our water, pollute our air and land, or trash our recreation and hunting areas
to send power to another state so a private California company can make a
profit?"
According to the Nevada Clean Energy Coalition, each year the Sempra coal
plant would rob Nevada of billions of gallons of precious ground water and
heavily pollute the air and water, emitting 50 dangerous pollutants like
Mercury, arsenic and lead into Nevada's now pristine air in order to generate
power for Southern California
The plant will cost roughly $2 billion, take about five years to build and
burn 6-7 million tons of coal each year. The power plant is proposed for the
Northern part of Washoe County, Nevada, 110 miles north of Reno near Gerlach.
"Sempra wants us to believe this dirty coal-fired plant will be 'the
cleanest in the West,' but I see it as a grave health risk," says David
Rumsey, whose Parker Ranch is downwind from the plant's proposed 650-foot smoke
stack. "Your chances of dying from lung cancer or cardiac disease resulting
from power plant emissions in the U.S. are already nearly two-times greater than
the chance of being killed in a drunk driving accident. This is a very serious
public health risk."
Perhaps most disturbingly, the plant will throw out hundreds of pounds of
lethal mercury each year. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that is already so
widespread that it threatens one in six women of child-bearing age, the
Coalition says.
Eldon Hanneman, a serious local fisherman, is concerned that it would take
only a small amount of mercury to destroy the Pyramid Lake fishery. "The
plant will pollute our air and water. The mercury pollution alone threatens our
lakes, rivers, and reservoirs and therefore our fishing."
According to the Nevada Clean Energy Coalition, the price that Nevada would
pay does not end there. If built, the coal-fired plant will seriously dampen
development of Nevada's renewable energy resources like wind and geothermal by
taking the remaining available capacity on existing transmission lines that
could otherwise be used to carry renewable energy to meet market demands.
Shuman Moore, project development manager for the Nevada Energy Park, a
renewable energy project, says the plant would freeze out better economic
opportunities. "Thousands of direct and indirect jobs and millions of
dollars in tax revenues will be lost if the Sempra plant proceeds," Moore
says. "The Sempra plant would consume all of the remaining available
electric transmission space, thereby blocking the construction of any meaningful
amount of renewable energy projects and their downstream businesses."
Renewable energy also fills a market demand. Many private utilities, such as
those in California, are required to derive 20% of their power from renewable
sources by 2017. Most recently, the city of Los Angeles pulled its investment
out of the IPP3 coal plant in Utah in order to invest in renewable energy.
However, San Diego Gas and Electric, the local electric company owned by Sempra,
currently supplies only 4.4% of its energy from renewable energy resources. This
is the lowest level of renewable energy use by any major electric utility in
California or Nevada.
"Developing Nevada's wind, geothermal, and solar energy is smarter,
cleaner, and more profitable for our state than coal generation," says Jon
Wellinghoff, Nevada's first Consumer Advocate and Partner and Energy Law
Division Manager of the Law Firm of Beckley Singleton. "Nevada leads the
way with renewable energy development for our own electric use. We have enough
clean energy resources here to also turn it into a marketable product for export
for other states."
The Nevada Clean Energy Coalition is continuing to expand as more
organizations join in efforts to protect Nevada's future. Charter members
include: the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, Western
Resource Advocates, Sierra Club, Northwestern Great Basin Association, Public
Resource Associates, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Great Basin Mine Watch,
Planet X Pottery, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Citizen Alert,
Nevada Conservation League, Nevada Citizens Against the Sempra San Diego Coal
Plant, Parker Ranch, Nevada Energy Park, Grand Canyon Trust, Keep California
Pollution in California, and Clean Air Task Force.
Contact:
Hunter Cutting
Resource Media
415-561-2325
http://www.nevadacleanenergy.org/
Or
Jennifer Zabriskie
Write Pitch Communications
323.908-7608
Nevada Clean Energy Coalition
CONTACT: Hunter Cutting of Resource Media, +1-415-561-2325,hunter@resource-media.org;
or Jennifer Zabriskie of Write PitchCommunications, +1-323-908-7608, jen@writepitch.com,
both for Nevada CleanEnergy Coalition
Web site: http://www.nevadacleanenergy.org/
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