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.
Without subsidies there wouldn't be one stupid windmill generating power.
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.
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!!
Reminds me of a balloon releasing a lot of hot air.
No question this guy has turned out to be "all hat and no cattle".
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.
Man, that is ugly. Looks like aliens invading or something.
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