Intermountain Power Project Unit 3

Unit 3 of the Intermountain Power Project was planned to be built alongside two existing units in Delta, Utah.

In Nov. 2004, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust appealed this project’s air permits to the Utah Air Quality Board. On July 31, 2007, the six California cities that take 75% of the power from the Intermountain Power Project refused to allow a third coal-fired generating unit to be built. In response, UAMPS (made up of 23 Utah municipalities) and Rocky Mountain Power – which take the other 25% of the facility’s power – threatened to sue.

On Dec. 6, 2007, PacifiCorp announced that it was canceling plans to build Unit 3. Citing the uncertain political situation regarding climate change, the company decided to look instead at a combination of natural gas and wind power systems, which would go online in 2014.

In January 2008, according to the Sierra Club, "the Utah Associated Municipal Power System (UAMPS), a body composed of 23 Utah communities and six electric cooperatives which originally pledged to purchase 50% of the power from Intermountain Power's proposed coal-unit, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to go ahead with plans for a third 900-megawatt coal-fired plant at IPP's Delta, Utah station."

In July 2009, Intermountain Power Agency settled the UAMPS lawsuit and confirmed that it had officially canceled plans to build the third coal-fired unit.

Project Details
Sponsors: PacifiCorp and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems Location: Delta, UT Capacity: 900 MW (950 MW gross) Type: Pulverized coal Projected in service: 2012 Status: Cancelled

Financing

 * Citigroup
 * Credit Suisse
 * Wells Fargo

Citizen Groups

 * Utah Sierra Club, Tim Wagner, utah.chapter [at] sierraclub.org
 * Utah Moms for Clean Air, Dana Clark, dclark [at] ran.org
 * Utah Western Resource Advocates, utah [at] westernresources.org
 * Grand Canyon Trust

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Intermountain Power Station
 * Utah and coal
 * United States and coal
 * Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * US proposed coal plants (both active and cancelled)
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2007
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2008
 * State-by-state guide to information on coal in the United States (or click on the map)