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| 6/17/2009 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Desert Rock power plant backers file appeal to reinstate permit
Joe Hanel
Journal Denver Bureau
DENVER - Backers of the proposed Desert Rock power plant have asked a federal appeals board to reinstate the plant's air pollution permit, which the Environmental Protection Agency took back in April.
Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Ritter pressed his argument against the power plant to the White House's senior environmental official this week at a meeting in Park City, Utah.
Desert Rock took its case to the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board last Thursday, calling the permit revocation "unprecedented."
"The board's decision in this case will reflect on the integrity of EPA as an institution and its respect for basic notions of fairness and due process," wrote Jeffrey Holmstead, lawyer for Desert Rock.
The Desert Rock Energy Project is run by the Navajo Nation and New York-based Sithe Global. It would put a coal power plant on Navajo land near Shiprock, the same region as the existing Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generating Station. By some measures, the two existing plants are some of the nation's dirtiest.
Ritter and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took their opposition to the plant to President Barack Obama's new EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, in a letter earlier this year. This week, Ritter restated his case to Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
"She said she understood our concerns about that, and that they were actually looking at it and looking at it with a fresh set of eyes," Ritter said Tuesday.
Ritter and Sutley were in Utah for a meeting of Western governors. He invited Sutley to visit the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation and see the region' air quality problems for herself.
State Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, has tried to get Interior Secretary Ken Salazar involved in the power plant. Ritter said Tuesday that the EPA process is working well and Salazar probably does not need to be involved. Salazar's department includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but the EPA - the prime federal agency in this case - does not report to Salazar.
The EPA issued the air pollution permit July 31, 2008 - one day before a deadline it negotiated with Desert Rock in a lawsuit the power plant owners brought against the EPA for taking too long with the permit. But on April 27, the EPA asked the Environmental Appeals Board to overturn the permit.
Desert Rock lawyers say Jackson, the new EPA administrator, is taking an active role in steering the EPA away from approval of the plant. Ritter also said President Barack Obama's administration "has responded in a positive way" to concerns raised by plant opponents.
Developers said the permit denial would hurt the Navajo Nation.
"At immediate stake are the millions of dollars already invested in the Desert Rock Project, hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs for the Navajos, and a reliable source of energy for an area of the country that desperately needs it," Holmstead wrote.
Environmental groups argued to the appeals board that Desert Rock's lawsuit forced the permit to be issued before it was complete. The EPA should be allowed to take back the permit because it has new information and new policies, the environmental groups said in a brief supporting the EPA's move.
Reach Joe Hanel at joeh@cortezjournal.com.
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