PNM: EPA rule would cost $1 billion

A proposed rule announced Tuesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would require San Juan Generating Station to install costly pollution-control equipment. Environmentalists hailed the development, saying it would lead to cleaner air in the Four Corners, but the power plant's largest owner said the rule could cost $1 billion or more. The rule would require, among other things, a dramatic 83-percent reduction in the coal-burning power plant's emissions of nitrogen oxides, substances linked to smog and haze. Reaching that benchmark would require the installation of selective catalytic reduction equipment. PNM, a large electricity provider based in Albuquerque, said the equipment's cost would be passed on to residential and business customers. "Above everything else, we are concerned about the impact this could have on customer bills," Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM president and CEO, said in a written statement. "We believe we already have the technology in place to meet the haze reduction requirements of the federal Clean Air Act and do so at a far lower cost." The proposed rule was prompted in part by concerns about haze at Mesa Verde National Park in Southwest Colorado, designated a "Class 1" area that receives special protection according to the Clean Air Act. "The driver here is these Class 1 areas are losing their viewsheds," said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico energy coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance, an environmental group...more

NM just experienced what Wilderness does with the Clean Water Act (Outstanding Natural Waters), and now they will experience what federal protected areas do with the Clean Air Act.