February 14, 2008
Crowd Protests toquop Power Plant

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

A final Environmental Impact Study regarding the permit for the $1.5 billion Toquop coal-fired power plant near Mesquite is expected in May or June 2008.

Thomas Johns, Vice President of Development for project owner Sithe Global, made the comment during the regular February 4 meeting of the Lincoln County Commissioners. A draft air permit was issued for the plant in December.

Sithe Global wants to build the 750-megawatt plant on the Lincoln County Land Act, also known as Toquop, about 14 miles north of Mesquite.

Johns said the company hopes to get a final air permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and approval from the Bureau of Land Management to start construction by March 2009 and begin power generation by 2013. The plant would employ an average of 800 people during construction and 110 permanently when operations start. Toquop would bring coal in from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming to Nevada by rail. Johns told Commissioners Powder River Basin coal is preferred because it burns cleaner and doesn’t produce as much nitrogen oxide as found in many other types of coal Generated electricity would connect to nearby power transmission lines.

Chanting demonstrators outside the Mesquite City Hall at a February 7 meeting on the progress of the project, voiced their protest to the standing room only crowd inside. Several hired representatives of the coal-power advocacy group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, in support of the plant, marched alongside the protestors outside.

Dante Pistone, Public Information Officer of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, said some people object to coal plants because they throw off large quantities of carbon dioxide, which is believed to contribute to global warming. However, Pistone said, carbon dioxide was not a regulated pollutant and the state could not consider carbon dioxide pollution from the plant.

Lincoln County Commission Chairwoman Ronda Hornbeck spoke in favor of the project. She said it would bring the sparsely populated, and financially struggling, county $10 million in additional annual taxes to be used for schools, roads and other needed public programs.

Clark County Assemblyman Joe Hardy, who represents the Mesquite area, said it was a bad idea to build a controversial project such as a coal-fired plant near the county line and Mesquite. He suggested it should be moved to Ely in White Pine County.

A busload of people came from St. George, Utah. Dr. Craig Booth said, “Arizona and Las Vegas get the power, Lincoln County gets a few dollars, Sithe Global gets the money and St. George and Mesquite get the pollution.” He said St. George, directly downwind 80 percent of the time, is 34 miles from the plant.

Johns told the Lincoln County Commission that while coal is the preferred source of power generation, Sithe Global is developing forms of solar powered generation and would be willing to consider such a plant in Lincoln County, if the coal plant is turned down. But, he said, by 2012, both sources are likely to be needed “to keep the lights on.”

He said Sithe Global is planning an advertising and newspaper campaign, along with a series of small group meetings with the business community in St. George and Mesquite, to “talk about things that the opposition has said that necessarily aren’t factual and get the story out.”