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Nevada power plant to close after dispute
AP ^ | 12/30/5

Posted on 12/30/2005 8:01:33 AM PST by SmithL

LAUGHLIN, Nev. - A large coal-fired power plant will close at the end of the year rather than violate a court-ordered deadline to install an estimated $1.1 billion in pollution-control measures.

Southern California Edison said Thursday the Mohave Generating Station, at the center of an environmental dispute several years ago, would close. The plant has provided the utility with 7 percent of its electricity, but the company said its 13 million customers would not be immediately affected because of other power sources.

Under a 1999 consent decree won by environmental groups, the aging Mohave plant was required to upgrade its pollution controls or close by Jan. 1, 2006.

The groups had argued the 1,580-megawatt plant, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas, had repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act, contributing to haze at the Grand Canyon.

The utility, the plant's majority owner and operator, had hoped to keep it open as natural gas prices have continued to rise.

In a filing Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission, Edison said it planned to continue negotiations aimed at keeping the plant open but expected to close it for at least a few months. The environmental groups have said they would not agree to a deadline extension.

The plant is the only customer of the nearby Black Mesa mine, which provides about 160 jobs to members of the Navajo Nation. The mine, run by Peabody Energy Corp., will likely be forced to close.

"It was the environmental groups that helped bring this about - for altruistic reasons, of course - but the result is that a lot of breadwinners are going to be out of work," said George Hardeen, a spokesman for the Navajo Nation.

Environmentalists said they sympathized with the tribes, but argued Edison had plenty of time to fix the plant's pollution problems. Edison should invest in renewable energy sources on tribal land, which would benefit the people "who have been exploited all of these years by the greater metropolitan centers of the West," said Roger Clark, director of the Grand Canyon Trust's air and energy program.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: blackmesa; cleanairact; cpuc; ecoterror; greengovernor; judicialactivism; mohave; peabodyenergy; sce
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To: Cvengr

Without subsidies there wouldn't be one stupid windmill generating power.


81 posted on 12/31/2005 12:18:42 PM PST by dalereed
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To: FOG724

Hard to figure out where Arnold stands on particular issues, since he rotates like a weather vane depending on who happens to be giving him heat at the moment.


82 posted on 12/31/2005 3:15:34 PM PST by Czar (StillFedUptotheTeeth@Washington)
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To: Czar
Hard to figure out where Arnold stands on particular issues, since he rotates like a weather vane depending on who happens to be giving him heat sex at the moment.
83 posted on 12/31/2005 3:18:52 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
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To: chimera

Somewhere, I read that conventional renewable energy sources(that is, NON superconducting, non nuclear), like wind, solar and geothermal power, could not be expected to handle more than about 5% of the average power needs, in the best-case scenario!!


84 posted on 12/31/2005 3:23:15 PM PST by Rca2000 (I am Omni-one. I see all, hear all and know all, I can read your mind. You cannot stop me.)
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To: Czar
depending on who happens to be giving him heat at the moment

Reminds me of a balloon releasing a lot of hot air.

85 posted on 01/01/2006 12:11:32 AM PST by FOG724 (A vote for McCain is a vote for Hillary)
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To: FOG724

No question this guy has turned out to be "all hat and no cattle".


86 posted on 01/01/2006 11:00:46 AM PST by Czar (StillFedUptotheTeeth@Washington)
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To: SmithL
Here's a related story: Ariz. mine closure throws Indians out of work.
87 posted on 01/01/2006 12:31:12 PM PST by bkwells (Liberals=Hypocrites)
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To: Rca2000
Sounds about right to me. In this country, the figure that sticks in my mind is 0.6% of electricity generation came from "renewable" sources, excluding hydropower since that is a "traditional" generation source. But since electricity production is about one-third of all energy production, it represents about 0.2% of total energy production. Kind of hard to run a modern country on totals like that.

But the real fly in the ointment when it comes to things like solar and windpower is availability. Relying on intermittent energy sources for a significant portion of baseload power requirements is a prescription for disaster when it comes to running an industrialized country that depends on high-tech for its living. Not having energy when you need it will leave a lot of people unhappy at best, at risk for their lives at worst.

88 posted on 01/01/2006 1:50:14 PM PST by chimera
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To: Cvengr

Man, that is ugly. Looks like aliens invading or something.


89 posted on 01/01/2006 3:17:36 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (None genuine without my signature)
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To: Cvengr
Terrible. A massive forest of skinny metal tress in an otherwise natural wilderness. Talk about visual disruption. Where are the enviro-wackos when you need them? Oh, I forgot, Teddy is fat, drunk and happy protesting the Cape Cod wind project, and ex-druggie Robert Kennedy Jr. is off trying to get Indian Point shutdown. Just where we don't need them...
90 posted on 01/02/2006 10:37:20 AM PST by chimera
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To: chimera
And, before anyone says it, no, I'm not talking about the road and the streetlights in the foreground, but the distant view of the desert right up to the mountains. That view reminds me of some of the early-day pictures of the windcatter fields in Oklahoma and East Texas, literally a forest of oil drilling rigs. Now they've got things that look like super-sized Cuisanarts covering the landscape.
91 posted on 01/02/2006 10:42:14 AM PST by chimera
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