White Pine Energy Station

The final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the White Pine Energy Station project, proposed by LS Power Development and Dynegy, was released in October 2008. The Sierra Club submitted comments on the draft EIS in June 2007. In Aug. 2007, in comments submitted on the project’s draft EIS, the federal EPA questioned the need for the plant. In 2009 it was announced that the plant would be indefinitely postponed because of poor economic conditions and "increasing regulatory uncertainties."

Background
In September 2007, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent letters to Dynegy and five other companies, raising the concern that carbon dioxide risks from pending projects had not been adequately disclosed. On Sept. 7, a request by several environmental groups to delay the permit approval process was denied by the Nevada Environmental Commission. . The Nevada Republican Party endorsed the project in Oct. 2007.

In November, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection announced that it was opening its review of its agreements with LS to input from environmental groups. An effort by Nevada’s U.S. Senator Harry Reid – the Senate majority leader – to block the plant’s funding in the Senate stalled in Dec. 2007.

On October 3, 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released the final environmental impact statement for the White Pine plant. The BLM is expected to grant LS Power the right of way for the power plant in 30 days, however LS Power still needs additional permits from the Nevada EPA, including the final air permit.

In late November 2008, the Sierra Club submitted written comments on the BLM's Final Environmental Impact Study for the White Pine plant. The comments noted the final study's many deficiencies, including its failure to adequately analyze impacts from the proposed plant's greenhouse gas emissions, its failure to study in full the plant's effects on nearby Great Basin, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, and its failure to sufficiently assess the plant's impacts on the state's air quality. The Sierra Club also sent a letter to the Nevada DEP, requesting that the the air permitting process and the plant's carbon dioxide emissions be re-considered in light of a recent regulatory ruling, filed in an appeal of the air permit for the proposed Bonanza coal plant in Utah. US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also sent a letter to Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons asking Gibbons to reconsider his support for the White Pine plant and two others proposed for the state on the basis of the Bonanza ruling.

In December 2008, Dynegy CEO Bruce Williamson announced that the company was reevaluating its role in developing new power plants, including White Pine. Williamson cited the tightening credit markets and difficulty in permitted new coal plants as reasons for reconsidering its involvement in the siting, permitting, financing and construction of several new projects. Other plants include the Longleaf plant in Georgia, LS Power Elk Run Energy Station in Iowa, Midland Power Plant in Michigan, Plum Point Energy Station in Arkansas, Sandy Creek Plant in Texas, and the West Deptford Project in New Jersey. As an alternative, the company will look at adding generation to its existing sites in the Northeast, Midwest and Western U.S.

On March 10, 2009 the Nevada Public Utility Commission was scheduled to hold the last public hearing on the proposed White Pine Energy Station permit.

Five days before the hearing, LS Power notified state regulators that it was withdrawing its application to build the plant. The company cited economic conditions and regulatory uncertainties. Instead, LS Power will focus on completing a planned 500-mile transmission line project to provide new access to renewable energy resources across Nevada.

Project Details
Sponsor: LS Power Development and Dynegy Location: White Pine County, NV Capacity: 1600 MW Type: Pulverized coal Projected in service: TBD Status: On hold

Financing

 * Citigroup
 * Credit Suisse
 * Goldman Sachs
 * JP Morgan Chase
 * Merrill Lynch
 * Morgan Stanley

Citizen Groups

 * Nevada Sierra Club, Dennis Ghiglieri, conservation [at] toiyabe.sierraclub.org
 * Utah Sierra Club, Tim Wagner, tim.wagner [at] sierraclub.org
 * Nevada Conservation League, Erin McCarty
 * Western Resource Advocates

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Nevada 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)