Opponents say the permit is illegal because it ignores a Supreme Court ruling on the EPA

By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 10/08/2007 09:51:41 AM MDT

Three conservation organizations are appealing a federal permit that would allow a Utah coal-fired power plant to expand, an act the organizations say would dump nearly 2 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually.
The Sierra Club announced the appeal Friday, and is joined by Western Resource Advocates and Environmental Defense in the attempt to turn back the permit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued Aug. 30 to expand the Bonanza plant southeast of Vernal.
The Bonanza permit is the first issued since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that the EPA has the authority under the federal Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
In the permit, the EPA denied it had to consider the impact of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in setting the permit's pollution control requirements.
The Sierra Club says the permit is illegal, a position U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, underscored in a Sept. 18 letter to EPA administrator Stephen Johnson requesting him to appear before a congressional committee this month to explain the "tortured new legal theory for why the agency does not have authority to regulate CO2 emissions."
Tim Wagner, director the Smart Energy Campaign for the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, said in a Friday statement that the EPA has shirked its public duty in an illegal action. "It's as if they think that both global warming and Supreme Court decisions are debatable," he said.
The addition to the Bonanza coal-fired power plant would burn waste coal removed from a coal mine on the company's property that the existing generator can't burn. The new plant would mean the operator could avoid the costs of hauling the coal to a hazardous waste dump.
While the state normally issues air-quality permits for power plants, the Bonanza plant is on tribal lands and under federal jurisdiction.

Bonanza facts

* The Bonanza Power Plant is southeast of Vernal in Uintah County, just west of the Colorado state line.
* About 400 megawatts are generated by the existing plant.
* A new generating station is proposed to turn waste coal into 86 megawatts of additional electricity.
* Deseret Power Electric Cooperative , including four power co-ops in Utah, serves 45,000 customers and sells surplus electricity to cities, power marketers and wholesalers in six states.

Source: Deseret Power Electric Cooperative and the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club

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