(Harry) Reid vows to shut off coal-fired plant plan

[jpak]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6486448

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he will "do everything I can" to stop three proposed coal-fired power plants near Ely and Mesquite, welcome news to conservation groups wary of the pollution the plants would send downwind to Utah.

The three plants - one a public utility, the others private businesses - would generate about 3,900 megawatts of power, enough for more than 1 million households. They also would emit toxic substances that would quickly cross the state line and head for Utah cities.

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"Because I believe that developing renewable energy in Nevada is far preferable to coal for the sake of our economy, public health and the environment, I will use every means at my disposal to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Nevada that do not capture and permanently store greenhouse gas emissions," he wrote in the letter, released by conservation groups and media outlets on Thursday.

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The senator's letter came after a grassroots letter campaign started by the Sierra Club and other advocacy groups, said the Nevada Sierra Club's Lydia Ball.

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