No Need To Hurry! EPA Gives ANOTHER Five Years To Clean Up Navajo Plant
In a bid to clean up one of the nation’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants without causing economic harm to the Navajo Nation that surrounds it, the Environmental Protection Agency indicated on Friday that it would give the plant’s owners five extra years, until 2023, to install expensive state-of-the art emissions reduction equipment. The agency expressed its willingness to extend the deadline by releasing a proposed rule.
The Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz., not far from the Grand Canyon, has long been a priority for environmentalists concerned about the health impacts from the pollution it generates and the ensuing haze that settles over the the majestic park.
But the 2,200-megawatt plant has powerful defenders. Its electricity has helped light Los Angeles and pump Colorado River water to communities around Arizona. The plant, which first generated electricity 39 years ago, and the Kayenta coal mine that feeds it provide about 1,000 local jobs. The vast majority of these are held by Native Americans. Unemployment rates are well above 50 percent in and around the reservation.
Jared Blumenfeld, the E.P.A.’s regional administrator for California, Nevada and parts of Arizona, said the economic issue was a major reason for the extension. “There’s an economic reality and imperative here,” he said in an interview. “I am committed to ensuring that we were not the reason the facility closes,” he said. “I wanted it to remain open while the tribes develop a plan for a more sustainable future.”
EDIT
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/e-p-a-extends-deadline-for-navajo-plants-pollution-controls/
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