PRC debates coal plant retrofit

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - by Staci Matlock - The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission on Tuesday debated a resolution on a plan to clean up emissions from the state's largest coal-fired power generating plant, but didn't vote on it.  Three of the five commissioners said they opposed the resolution because it didn't consider other options for reducing haze blamed on the northwestern New Mexico facility. San Juan Generating Station provides the bulk of electricity for 2 million customers of Public Service Company of New Mexico and eight other partners, including Los Alamos County and Tri-State Electric Cooperative. The 1,800-megawatt plant is more than four decades old and employs almost 400 people, many of them Navajo. Several hundred more work at a nearby coal mine.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered PNM and its partners to retrofit the San Juan Generating Station to reduce nitrogen oxides in the emissions that contribute to haze.  The EPA wants the companies to use a technology that PNM says has an estimated cost of at least $750 million, an expense that would have an impact on utility customers. PNM and the state Environment Department are advocating for a different technology that would still meet federal requirements, but at about one-tenth of the cost.  The state Public Regulation Commission doesn't have any authority over the issue, but District 5 Commissioner Ben Hall wanted to send a message to President Barack Obama: Order the EPA to back off and work with PNM on less-expensive alternatives for reducing the haze.  Hall introduced a resolution asking commissioners to support the less expensive state plan for retrofitting the San Juan Generating Station. He said the EPA's insistence on a more expensive technology for reducing haze will ultimately hurt ratepayers. Read more

PRC debates coal plant retrofit