Posted on 10/19/2001 12:52:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
By Diane Lindquist
STAFF WRITER
October 19, 2001
Two area congressmen have asked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to deny U.S. permits needed to deliver electricity to California from power plants being built in Mexico.
Officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board also have asked that the permits be refused until the effect the plants would have on the region's air and water is fully assessed.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, requested that Abraham stop construction of the plants near Mexicali by denying permits for the developers to build transmission lines across the border.
"While California desperately needs the power, the people of my congressional district do not need the pollution that these unregulated plants will spew into the United States," Filner said in the letter.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, said he spoke with Abraham on Wednesday and gained assurances that no action would be taken on the permits until the congressman could personally argue for building the power plants in the United States.
Abraham said he and Hunter will meet within the next week or so.
The secretary was in Palo Alto yesterday and unavailable for comment.
Sempra Energy and InterGen, the plants' developers, would supply California consumers with about 100 megawatts of electricity through two nine-mile, cross-border transmission lines. The companies are planning for the plants to begin operating in 2003.
Opponents in San Diego and Imperial counties have focused on the U.S. permit process because they have no legal input in Mexico's plant permit procedure.
They contend the plants would expel tons of emissions into a border region that already is under orders by the United States and Mexico to reduce pollution.
Project critics were upset that the Department of Energy, the lead agency on the so-called presidential permits, opted for an environmental assessment of the projects, rather than a more thorough environmental impact statement.
The EPA and California Air Resources Board, in a letter regarding an environmental assessment draft, called on the Department of Energy to study the full environmental effect.
The EPA believes the plants would harm Imperial County's efforts to attain good air quality standards, EPA director Enrique Manzanilla, the letter's author, said yesterday.
The agency's project leader, Shanna Draheim, said: "Imperial County has a plan to reach (clean-air) goals. To the extent any emissions will come from across the border, they will have to do that much more."
In addition to air pollution concerns, the EPA questioned the water cooling systems with which the two plants would be equipped. Both would use Mexicali waste water.
The arrangement, said the letter, raises questions because so much water would evaporate or be discharged into the New River and Salton Sea in a form that might affect the bodies' water quality.
California Air Resources Board executive officer Michael Kenny wrote that "all new facilities in the border area should be required to use the cleanest, most effective control technologies available."
The InterGen plant is installing the most advanced pollution control equipment on half its generators. The Sempra plant is fully equipped with the latest controls.
Both plants still would add emissions. If constructed in California, they would be required to reduce emissions from other sources, thus paying for "offsets" to lessen the emissions' effects.
InterGen officials did not respond to attempts to reach them for comment.
Sempra Energy spokesman Michael Clark said the company would expect concerns to be raised with such a large project.
"We've stated from the beginning that we are building the power plant to the same quality standards," he said.
Sempra Energy's operation of a natural gas distribution system in Mexicali already has accomplished offsets by substituting the clean-burning fuel for heavier fuels.
In 2000, Clark said, the substitution of natural gas for heavier fuels amounted to a 4,000-ton reduction in Mexicali emissions.
He just wants it built on this side of the border.
The Democrat is part of the Enviro Terrorists!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.