The Four Corners Power Plant, west of Farmington, may be joined by the Desert Rock plant in the not-too-distant future. However, the controversial and massive plant suffered a setback last week when New Mexico State Legislators refused to extend an $85 million tax credit to the project. /Photo by Jared Boyd

by Will Sands

The Desert Rock Power Plant lost some juice this week. Efforts to obtain an $85 million tax subsidy from the New Mexico State Legislature fell short and conservationists and opponents of the proposed coal-fired power plant are celebrating a victory.

Sithe Global would like to begin construction on the Desert Rock plant as early as 2008. In collaboration with the Diné Power Authority, Sithe would build the coal-fired plant on Navajo Reservation land, 30 miles southwest of Farmington, for an estimated cost of $2 billion. When completed, the new plant would be among the largest in the nation and generate enough energy for 1.5 million homes. The company also has won preliminary approval from the Environmental Protection Agency for the plant, which it touts as state-of-the-art, using 80 percent less water than wet-cooled coal-fired plants and having an efficiency of 41 percent.

Opponents of Desert Rock and clean air advocates see the power plant in a different light. Regardless of the technology, the new power plant will add major pollution to the Four Corners area and join two other longtime polluting plants, The San Juan Generating Station and the Four Corners Power Plant. Both have been listed as among the dirtiest point sources of pollution in the nation. In addition, a fourth coal-fired plant, the Mustang Project, is also seeking approval to begin construction between Farmington and Grants.

New Mexico State legislators took a similar view of the Desert Rock plant last week. On Monday, senators killed a bill that would have provided an $85 million tax subsidy to New York-based Sithe Global Power.

“Lawmakers sent a powerful message,” said Carol Oldham, of the Sierra Club. “They saw this measure for what it was: a thinly veiled scheme to line the pockets of wealthy and influential out-of-state interests at the expense of New Mexico’s clean air and water and its residents’ health.”

Earlier this month, lawmakers in the state house permanently tabled another version of the bill. An anticipated last-minute effort by the measure’s proponents to get the subsidy rolled into an omnibus tax package also never materialized. Opponents charged that the next step is completely eliminating Desert Rock.

“Now that legislators have taken the wise step of prohibiting Sithe and its parent company from exploiting taxpayers to build their power plant, it’s time to focus on keeping the polluting plant from being built,” said Denise Fort, a University of New Mexico environmental law professor. “At a time when New Mexico is taking a leadership role on clean energy and decreasing global warming pollution, it doesn’t make any sense to build a facility that essentially would erase that progress.”

The opposition further countered that coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of global warming pollution. If built, Desert Rock would emit an estimated 10.5 million metric tons of pollution every year, a 34 percent increase over the state’s entire 2003 emissions.

Meanwhile New Mexico is taking an aggressive stand on greenhouse gases and the development of clean energy. After a 2005 executive order from Gov. Bill Richardson, the state set aggressive targets for reducing

global warming emissions. Last month, New Mexico also joined Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington in a pact to curtail global warming pollution. Desert Rock opponents are hopeful that the Four Corners area can benefit from renewable energies rather than continuing to suffer from coal-fired power.

“We applaud the New Mexico Legislature, and especially the legislators from the Navajo Nation, who stood up against subsidizing a new polluting coal plant,” said Sandy Buffett, executive director of Conservation Voters New Mexico. “We will continue to work closely with our Navajo colleagues to pursue clean energy economic development, such as concentrating solar and wind, for the Four Corners.” •