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Official: Desert Rock to get fair shake
N.M. attorney general says new EPA means encouraging changes
"There might be hope," King said. "The incoming administration will give us the opportunity to make our arguments against EPA's grant of Desert Rock's air permit."
Sithe Global LLC is planning a 1,500-megawatt coal-burning plant near Burnham, N.M., on the Navajo reservation about 30 miles southwest of Farmington.
The Navajo Nation's government favors the plant and has created Diné Power Authority to operate it.
King, who filed a challenge July 31 to the EPA action granting the plant's air permit, met last week with Obama's transition team.
"I had an opportunity to talk with the representatives of energy and environment about Desert Rock and how the EPA should address carbon dioxide issues," King said.
King said he believes recent events also will help New Mexico challenge the EPA's air permit.
After a Sierra Club appeal, the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board ruled Nov. 13 that the EPA must reconsider Utah's Bonanza Power Plant's air permit in terms of regulating its carbon dioxide emissions.
The 110-megawatt Bonanza Power Plant estimates it will emit 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Desert Rock estimates it will discharge 12.7 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.
San Juan County, N.M., also reached "nonattainment status" for ozone levels when 77 parts per billion were recorded in October. Ozone levels are not to exceed more than 75 parts per billion.
"The nonattainment status, coupled with the Sierra Club's successful challenge of Utah's Bonanza Power Plant air permit, likely will aid New Mexico's challenge of the Desert Rock air permit granted last summer," King said.
He said the EPA is still "trying to jam the issue."
"But when the new EPA head comes in, we want EPA to consider all the issues that are important and to consider them fairly. That includes health issues to the people of San Juan County," he said.
King hopes the incoming administration will give Seth Cohen, an attorney with the state attorney general's office who wrote the state's appeal of the Desert Rock air permit, the opportunity to argue the state's case.
King said the EPA appeals board could issue its decision by the end of January.
Jeff Holmstead, lead attorney in the fight to build Desert Rock and a former assistant administrator for air at EPA, is confident the Environmental Appeals Board will uphold the permit for Desert Rock.
"It is in compliance with the Clean Air Act," he said. "The issue with the Bonanza Plant ruling is that it was entirely based on the (case's) administrative record. The administrative record on Desert Rock is much stronger."
King said discussions with Obama's transition team, which includes two Native American members, also touched on the Department of Energy and the cleanup of abandoned uranium mill tailings on tribal lands.
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