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Friday, March 3rd, 2017

The Largest Coal Plant in the Western U.S. is Closing Decades Ahead of Schedule

Author:     Adele Peters
Source:     fastcoexist
Publication Date:     02.27.17 6:00 AM
 Link: The Largest Coal Plant in the Western U.S. is Closing Decades Ahead of Schedule
Stephan:   I did a story about the Navajo Generating Station recently, and here is the happy ending. As this report  says the Navajo Generating Station, "... 12 miles from the Grand Canyon near Page, Arizona, is the seventh largest individual source of climate pollution in the country, pumping out more than 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year... shutting it down will... save more than $127 million a year in health costs. This is excellent news of itself, and to that must be added, happily, why the plant is closing. Even though regulations are being relaxed or eliminated under Pruitt's EPA this coal powered plant is still closing a decade ahead of schedule. Why? Whatever is going on politically people are voting through their daily choices for non-carbon energy. The market is driving the transition.

Navajo Generating Station

Three years ago, the EPA struck a deal with the owners of the largest coal plant in the Western U.S. to close the plant by 2044. Now—because of economics, not regulation—the owners plan to shut the plant down by 2019 instead.

The Navajo Generating Station, 12 miles from the Grand Canyon near Page, Arizona, is the seventh largest individual source of climate pollution in the country, pumping out more than 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. It’s also a major source of air pollution for people living nearby; by some estimates, shutting it down will also save more than $127 million a year in health costs.

Both the plant and the nearby coal mine also use a significant amount of water that would otherwise be used as drinking water for the Navajo Nation. “It’s clean water that they’re using,” says Percy Deal from Dine Care, a local Navajo environmental group. “I really believe that it’s time to put an end to that. That 31,000 acre-feet of […]

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