Clean Energy In the News

This year, 2008, right now, marks a turning point in human history. We have arrived at a clearly marked crossroads. Our defining challenge, our greatest opportunity, is now.

This crossroads is brightly lit. We cannot fail to see it. And we cannot miss the turn. We must act now to create a new direction for energy in our country.

Unfortunately the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved us in the wrong direction this week by approving a permit for the Desert Rock coal plant, an enormous facility that will pollute the air and water throughout northern New Mexico.

At a time when prominent scientists are calling for a ban on the construction of new coal fired power plants and a rapid phase-out of existing plants, the EPA has given thumbs up for a plant that takes us and our children down a perilous path.  The Desert Rock plant will produce almost 13 million tons of global warming gases each year -- wiping out any gains our state has made in developing renewable energy and efficiency.

A few months ago leading climate researchers from NASA and Columbia and Yale Universities released a startling report showing that we are now at great risk for catastrophic climate change. Unless we change course, we will see further and rapid melting of the ice sheets, dramatic sea level rise, and an increase of storms, floods, and droughts -- raising concerns for food security around the globe.

Approving a coal plant that will spew millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere for another fifty years is not just irresponsible, it is malpractice on the part of the EPA.

Proponents of the plant claim that Desert Rock will be “cleaner” from new technologies, but that is akin to saying that a filter on a cigarette makes smoking safe. The tobacco companies have no basis for such a claim and neither does the EPA.

In fact the U.S. Supreme Court, in one of its most critical environmental decisions in decades, ruled last year that the EPA has the authority to regulate global warming gases, and further -- that the EPA cannot “sidestep its authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.”

The EPA and other decision-makers know the cost of polluting our air, and they have the authority -- and responsibility -- to ensure that our children don’t pay the price.

In addition to carbon dioxide, the Desert Rock plant will put out large amounts of mercury, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides which have been linked to significant health problems.

Northern New Mexicans already live with contaminated air with ozone levels in communities adjacent to two existing coal plants already reaching the maximum levels permitted by the EPA. The entire northern half of the state -- including Taos, Española, Los Alamos, and Santa Fe -- are downwind of these plants, and will be exposed to increased levels of poisonous emissions.

Particulate matter from these coal plants poses a significant threat to public health:  causing lung damage, worsening asthma and leading to an increase risk of strokes, heart attacks and premature death.  In the United States pollution from coal fired power plants cuts short the lives of 24,000 Americans -- more people than are killed by drunk drivers.

The situation with Desert Rock is made even more tragic when one considers that our citizens will never even benefit from this dirty power.  It will be sold for cheap to Phoenix and Las Vegas. That’s right, New Mexico will bear the health burden for cheap, dirty power sold out of state, and it is a legacy we will leave to our children for decades to come.

We all have a picture of the kind of future we want to leave for our children. A vision of opportunities, of prosperity, of dreams realized.  From our lens within the health community, we believe that it is incumbent upon our generation to create a society that makes such visions possible. We must now work to overturn the very bad decision the EPA has made for New Mexico.

Dr. Fogarty serves on the national Board of Directors for Physicians for Social Responsibility and has worked as a physician with Navajo and Pueblo communities for more than ten years.

Christiana Coggins, Program Director for New Energy Economy, has a background in public health.