Just across the border on Navajo tribal lands and less than 20 miles west of Farmington sits the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant on the banks of Morgan Lake. The power plant, which closed three of its five generating units last year, received federal approval recently to continue operations for the next several decades./File photo

Up in the air

Enviros applaud EPA’s rule, but impacts on region uncertain

by Tracy Chamberlin

On Sunday, the president announced the first-ever national standards for power plant carbon emissions.

Dubbed the Clean Power Plan, the idea is to reduce greenhouse gases in the U.S. and encourage clean energy innovation and development.

“The Clean Power Plan is the single biggest action the U.S. has ever taken on climate,” Kim Stevens, state director for Environment Colorado, said in a statement.

With legal challenges likely to come, though, and the closest coal-fired power plant to this area on Navajo tribal lands across the New Mexico border, its direct effect on the Southwest is uncertain. 

The plan is not law handed down by Congress, one reason it could be contested in court. It’s not an Executive Order from President Barak Obama, either. It comes in the form of a rule from the Environmental Protection Agency. A draft of it was put out last year and received comments from millions of Americans.

The final rule, laid out in just under 1,600 pages, sets limits on the emissions from new power plants, as well as requirements to reduce carbon pollution from existing ones by almost one third.

Originally, the rule sought a 30 percent reduction by 2028. The final rule, however, requires a 32 percent  reduction by 2030.

The EPA baseline is 2005, which means 15 years from now carbon emissions must be 32 percent lower than the ones recorded that year.

“We realize these are ambitious goals and may be challenging,” Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a statement, “but we have risen to these challenges before by developing a mix of cost-effective strategies across the energy spectrum.”

Many officials from the Centennial State believe it’s already on its way.

With laws in place like the 2013 Renewable Energy Standard, which requires rural energy coops like LPEA to get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020, and the 2010 Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, which set a 30 percent goal by 2020 for investor-owned utilities, the state is already on a course for a reduction in carbon emissions.

Although the Clean Power Plan is a federal rule, it addresses each state individually. The numbers for carbon reduction are specific for each state, depending on the 2005 levels, and each state can either adopt the federal plan to achieve those goals or write their own plan.

Colorado is choosing to take its own path. The states’ Department of Public Health and Environment is tasked with heading up the effort, and is already soliciting public comment. The EPA’s deadline for submitting a draft plan is September of next year, and the department said it will bring the final draft to the State Legislature for approval.

Carbon pollution is the target of the EPA’s rule because, according to its numbers, it’s the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

“There’s no doubt that CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants are a huge issue,” said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator for the San Juan Citizens Alliance, a Durango-based environmental advocacy group.

Carbon dioxide accounts for 82 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. With electricity generation contributing more than any other economic sector - 31 percent compared to transportation’s 27 percent – it’s thought reducing carbon pollution from power plants will make the biggest impact.

In an overview of the plan, the EPA stated, “Reducing CO2 emissions from power plants, and driving investment in clean energy technologies strategies that do so is an essential step in lessening the impacts of climate change and providing a more certain future for our health, our environment, and future generations.”

The number one argument against setting standards for greenhouse gas emissions is cost. It comes down to economics versus environment, Eisenfeld said.

On the EPA’s list of the top six things every American should know about the Clean Power Plan, they tout the billions of dollars that will be saved by improved health and climate conditions. Then buried within the final rule, they also admit it will cost billions of dollars to implement it.

He doesn’t think it’s a legitimate argument, though. “We won’t have much of an economy if we continue to have all our cards in one basket,” he said.

For residents of Durango and La Plata County, what happens down south might be more important, Eisenfeld said.

Just across the border on Navajo tribal lands and less than 20 miles west of Farmington, sits the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generating Station.

The Four Corners Power Plant, which closed three of its five generating units last year, received federal approval recently to continue operations for the next several decades. 

On July 17, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement announced its final decision to approve a lease extension that will keep the plant running through 2041. They also approved the development of a new mine area in the nearby Navajo Mine, which will keep the coal coming for the next 25 years.

Eisenfeld said they are looking at legal challenges to that decision.

The San Juan Generating Station, which is just a few miles north of the power plant and embroiled in its own dealings with federal agencies, is considering shutting down one part of its operation by 2017 and retrofitting other parts in an effort to meet federal requirements regarding the haze it produces.

“The reality is, it’s becoming more and more difficult for the coal industry to survive economically,” Eisenfeld said.