Posted on 06/15/2005 4:48:55 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Nevada's high desert to provide more energy for Southern Californians are opposed by renewable energy advocates and may also run afoul of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new effort to fight global warming.
At a joint public hearing Wednesday by the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission, energy officials were expected to debate whether Schwarzenegger's greenhouse gas reduction goals will impact companies generating electricity outside California. Nevada, where environmental regulations tend to be more lax, already has several power plants supplying energy to California, and there are plans to build three more.
Energy companies have seen Nevada as a natural location from which to supply California's seemingly insatiable need for electricity, but a string of recent decisions by California regulators and officials is calling into question the viability of fossil fuel plants.
On June 1, Schwarzenegger vowed to cut California's greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010. While the governor issued no specific policies, the state Public Utilities Commission ordered utilities in December to consider coming environmental regulations when signing long-term contracts for power made from coal and natural gas.
The rules frustrate California's major utilities - they want a national energy policy, not state mandates.
"Greenhouse gas reductions should be addressed on a national level in a manner that's productive and industry-neutral," said Art Larson, a spokesman for Sempra Energy, which seeks to build a coal-fired power plant in Nevada's Black Rock Desert Wilderness.
Because greenhouse gases don't stop at state lines, environmental advocates hope the Schwarzenegger administration will instead add California's bureaucratic muscle to enforce his bold anti-pollution plan. Before Wednesday's meeting, they were pleased by what they heard from one of the governor's top energy advisers.
"The PUC procurement rules apply to investor-owned procurement whether they are considering in- or out-of-state resources," Joe Desmond, the governor's spokesman on energy matters, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Should California's regulatory authority extend to companies based in Nevada, one of the first projects to be impacted is Sempra's proposed coal-fired plant near Gerlach, Nev., which would cost $2 billion to bring online.
The plant has been criticized by environmental groups as well as hordes of partygoers from the San Francisco Bay area who visit the desert each year for the Burning Man festival. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Tuesday to oppose the plant's construction.
"It's another important signal that this is a wrong-headed project that needs to come to a speedy halt," said Supervisor Aaron Peskin. "Thousands of San Franciscans understand the beauty of Black Rock desert, and it's our responsibility to voice our opposition to the plant."
The resolution, which passed unanimously, urges the city of Los Angeles to reject Sempra Energy's application to the Department of Water and Power to tap the regional transmission line it partially owns to carry electricity across the border to California.
Other energy companies hope to harness northwest Nevada's wind and geothermal resources. The transmission line currently has enough excess capacity to carry energy from fossil fuel sources, or renewable sources, but not both.
California, you generate all the power you need under your rules.
What's needed is superior conduction technology. Then they could build nuke plants in non-controversial places and transmit the power anywhere.
Actually the real need is for people to stop complaining. If we solved every "problem" in the world, we would instantly find new issues to whine about.
superior conduction technology and mini-nukes..
good point... and why not?
It seems like CA is trying regulate interstate commerce. I thought that was illegal.
Come now DG, you know how this works: the Grovelnator's supporters (natural gas investors who fund the NRDC) would just love those higher prices for natural gas fired energy to continue into perpetuity.
Brought to you by Republicans as well as Democrats. If we buy into it, we deserve what we get.
I don't know why they don't just build nukes and be done with it. In the mean time, cut those power lines and tell those enviro-wienies to stuff it. What do they need power for anyways?
Maybe they can get all the street bums, crack addicts and wellfare crack addicts, illegal aliens, lunatic lefty's etc. to pedal bicycles hooked up to generators to supply their power requirements.
Your senators are trying to block the construction of power plants in Mexico to supply California with power unless they meet California emission standards.
California wants to impose its own fuel mileage standards on the rest of the country.
It's insane. It will work as well as the plan to have 10% of the new vehicle sales in California by 2002 be emission free.
It can't all be blamed on a behind the scenes political and financial scam. Some of your lawmakers are truly nuts.
Since when does the SFBoS have jurisdiction in Nevada?
the Grovelnator's supporters (natural gas investors who fund the NRDC) would just love those higher prices for natural gas fired energy to continue into perpetuity.
THE main emission from NG fired plants is CO2. Besides, the prevailing winds blow FROM CA to NV.....The coal fired plants wouldn't even get a smell in CA. (Though the citizens in NV can sure smell CA...)
In the mean time, cut those power lines and tell those enviro-wienies to stuff it. What do they need power for anyways?
AGREED! Abso-freekin-lootly!!!
Remind me again which state Schwarzenegger is the governor of?
austria.
Apparently NIMBYism has elevated to a new level...Not only is it "Not in My Backyard", but Yours Too!
Look, they're also too stupid to cook this stuff up on their own, and too corrupt to do it without something in it for them. The bulk of their office staff have been around too long to let them do it without compelling reason.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The reality is, DG, the Democrats really have sunk that low, and the Republican "moderates" with them.
It's long, but it explains a lot.
If so, the rest of the country is getting a very different picture of the California electorate.
After twenty years of organized brainwashing by NGOs, media, and public schools, no, but remember who drives the brainwashing, writing the talking points for media and textbooks, and manages the leftist teaching college professorate: the greenie NGOs funded by our notable friends.
It's one of those problems that's so big it's hard to see.
It's a self-perpetuating problem at this point, then. The brainwashing is complete.
Dependence upon government for protection from harm is a multigenerational problem at this point, what we engineers call a positive feedback loop.
It's amusing to hear public school teachers complain about parents who are themselves products of public schools.
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