Staff Writer
Article Launched: 06/13/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

No matter if you're for or against the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant, the time is past for the Environmental Protection Agency to act on an air permit.

Diné Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global Power applied for the air permit that is required to operate the plant way back in early 2004. Under federal law, the EPA has one year to make a determination and issue a decision.

It's more than four years later — and still no decision.

That all looks to change this summer, though. The EPA filed a consent decree last week in U.S. District Court in Houston, agreeing to act on the permit by July 31. Before the decree is final, however, the EPA has to publish it in the Federal Register and allow public comment on the document.

An EPA spokeswoman said unless the Department of Justice discovers facts that disclose problems with the consent decree, the federal agency will make a decision by the end of July.

Along with an air permit, Desert Rock must also obtain an environmental impact statement through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That final approval may also happen later this year.

The EPA already is way behind on the air permit decision and must act either way. The agency claims responding to about 1,000 mostly negative comments on the draft air permit in the past year, and climate modeling uncertainties, have delayed the process.

The Desert Rock project, which would be located near Burnham on the Navajo Nation, is clouded by controversy.

Supporters say the coal-fired plant will add hundreds of permanent jobs and pump in

$50 million annually to a poverty-stricken Navajo reservation.

Detractors, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, oppose building a new plant in an area that already is home to two major coal-fired operations. They say another large power plant would further harm the environment and put residents' health in further jeopardy.

Richardson, a former presidential candidate who is being mentioned as a vice president possibility for Barack Obama, urges the EPA to again delay a decision until New Mexico can be consulted more on the overall impact of another coal-fired plant.

Just what new concerns will be brought up following what's already been a four-year process? Most of those 1,000 comments in EPA's hands no doubt are similar issues that run the gamut between environmental protection, global warming concerns and other matters. Countless regional public hearings have been held in the past several years on the air permit and environmental impact statement.

Again, the time has come to act. If the project meets all of the necessary federal requirements, it should move forward. If it does not, Desert Rock can't be built in its present form. The waiting game on the air permit, frankly, has to end — one way or another.

Keep in mind that many unknown variables still exist for Desert Rock. Potential litigation, looming EPA smog standards that would push San Juan County over the legal limit and the ever-increasing climate change debate may keep Desert Rock on the back burner for the foreseeable future.

The cash-in-on-Bush rush is literally gathering steam — and New Mexico is right in the way:

The Navajo Nation's Diné Power Authority and its partner, Texas-based Sithe Global Power, have been doing their darnedest to add another coal-fired steam-electric plant to the Four Corners collection of air-polluters.

To its credit, and to the astonishment of Big Business, the Environmental Protection Agency has balked at the idea.

So the power company and its tribal front sued. We've waited four years, and that's long enough, said the plaintiffs. What they meant was, if we wait any longer, there's going to be a new president — one bound to be tougher on polluters than George W. Bush is. Let's get a federal commitment to construction while we can.

And this week, the EPA caved in, filing a consent decree saying it will act by the end of July on the company's request for an air-quality permit to build a 1,500-megawatt generator south of Farmington — a plant dedicated to keeping Arizona's urban hordes supplied with electricity.

Don't do it, said Gov. Bill Richardson to the feds; it'll keep you from carrying out the "full and thorough analysis of the far-reaching impacts this plant will have on the health of New Mexicans."

Oh, bother, comes the response from Sithe; this'll be the cleanest coal plant the country has ever seen. Let EPA issue us the strictest permit it can — and we'll comply with it.

And if the company can't, what'll happen? Will it have to shut down the plant, leaving Phoenicians with only their swimming pools for staying cool? Fat chance.

"Every indication is," says Richardson, "that this is an agreement being pushed by the Bush White House to the detriment of air quality in the Four Corners region." He's urging EPA to delay issuing the permit pending full consultation with New Mexico regarding the far-reaching environmental impacts — which, he says, include asthma-causing ozone, mercury and greenhouse gas emissions.

Either the governor hasn't seen, or properly rejects as propaganda, the advertisements and commercials conning America toward a grand new era of "clean coal" — the kind that emits clover instead of smudged air.

After all, says the company, there'll be Clean Air Act limits on the stuff wafting from our 'stacks: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and, yes, lead. So you're not likely to notice much pollution. And carbon-dioxide sequestration? No can do.

But when Desert Rock's emissions are compounded by those from the two older generators, what kind of mess will that make for the New Mexicans downwind of coal-burning country? Shouldn't there be a look at existing air-quality conditions before throwing another power plant into the mix?

Oh, don't worry your heads about that, comes the response — and besides, we're beyond the jurisdiction of your environment department, so what can New Mexico do about it?

Maybe more than Sithe thinks: Legal remedies remain. And New Mexico isn't alone. Colorado shares our state's concerns about air pollution, and could give weight to a Four Corners coalition for cleaner air. Meanwhile, New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry and Attorney General Gary King are keeping communications open with the company and with the Navajo Nation.

As for EPA, it should anticipate the cumulative effects of the region's smokestacks, and make its air-quality requirements really tough ones. That might send the project's lawyers back to their war rooms — unless the big bosses figure they should start building now, and work out the details of public health later.

New Mexicans should give the governor, Attorney General King and Secretary Curry credit for a good fight — and hope EPA careerists can hold Sithe and company to tough and effective air-quality rules.

The spokesman for the company working with a Navajo utility authority on a proposed coal-fired power plant near Farmington said Wednesday that an air permit for the plant is three years overdue.

Sithe Global Power spokesman Frank Maisano also said the Desert Rock plant will be the cleanest coal plant in the United States.

Gov. Bill Richardson on Tuesday complained that a consent decree to make a decision on the permit by the end of July is tying federal regulators' hands.

The governor wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to delay issuing an air permit until New Mexico can be consulted about the plant's impact.

Maisano said, however, that Desert Rock ``will be the cleanest coal plant in the United States with the most strict air permit ever.''

The EPA filed the consent decree last week in U.S. District Court in Houston, agreeing to act on the permit for the plant by July 31.

The Navajos' Dine Power Authority and Sithe applied for the air permit in early 2004. Under federal law, the EPA has a year to make a determination and issue a decision. The developers sued the EPA in March, accusing the federal agency of dragging its feet on the permit.

``It is hard to imagine that Governor Richardson could ask for more delays,'' Maisano said.

The Dine Power Authority is in partnership with Houston-based Sithe for the planned $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock project.