EPA seeks remand of Navajo power plant permit

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked an appeals board to allow the agency to reconsider an air permit issued last year for a planned coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico. Regional EPA officials want to reconsider the parts of the permit for the $3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project that were appealed by the state of New Mexico and environmentalists who were concerned about air quality, carbon dioxide emissions and violations of the Endangered Species Act. EPA spokesman Darrin Swartz-Larson said Monday it was unclear when the Environmental Appeals Board will rule on the EPA's request, but environmentalists were already hailing the agency's motion as a big roadblock for Desert Rock. "It's still our position that the project should not be built," said Nick Persampieri, an attorney with Earthjustice, which represents a coalition of environmental groups. "There's no demonstrated need for the project and we are hopeful that the final outcome will be that the project will not be built." The tribe's Dine Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global LLC have partnered to build the 1,500-megawatt power plant on the Navajo reservation south of Farmington. They have said Desert Rock would be one of the cleanest coal-burning plants in the nation and it would generate more than $50 million in annual revenues and create jobs on a reservation where more than half of people are unemployed. Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said Monday he was disappointed to learn of the EPA's move only after the motion was filed. He said he had hoped that a new administration in Washington would mean a change in the way the federal government has consulted with his tribe. Shirley has requested a meeting with President Barack Obama to talk about Desert Rock. "This isn't just about energy," Shirley said. "This is about sovereignty. This is about saving self. This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems." Jeff Holmstead, lead attorney in the fight to build Desert Rock and a former assistant administrator for air at EPA, was surprised by the EPA's action and said the agency seems to have little regard for due process or fairness. "We are well into the appeals process, and now EPA wants the Navajo Nation and its partners to go back and start over again under different rules," he said. If the motion to remand the permit is granted, it will be sent back to the EPA for further analysis, something that could take many months and another round of public comment. According to the EPA motion, the agency wants to reassess the limits for particulate matter emissions and whether the plant would use the best available pollution control technology. The agency also wants to finish consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about endangered species issues and fully analyze methods for controlling hazardous emissions. Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance said the permit should not have been issued in the first place, but he was hopeful that EPA "will take its responsibilities seriously" under the new administration. The environmental groups have argued that Desert Rock–which would be the third coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners region–would further degrade air quality, harm the environment and impact human health. State officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson and Environment Secretary Ron Curry, applauded the EPA's move. "We still have work to do to make sure that this project only moves forward with the proper environmental safeguards," Richardson said in a statement. Shirley has said that tribal leaders would not have supported such a project if it endangered their people or residents in neighboring states. "We're talking clean coal. We're talking carbon capture," Shirley said in a recent interview. "We want the Desert Rock power plant to be not only a model for the United States of America but for the world regarding the use of clean coal technology."