The government has denied Desert Rock Energy Company's bid for a federal stimulus grant, the Farmington Daily Times reported today. The company had hoped to use the money to include carbon capture sequestration technology into the project design of a coal-fired power plant near Farmington. Opponents of the project say the decision by the Department of Energy shows the Desert Rock project, which had it’s air permit pulled by the Environmental Protection Agency in September, isn’t feasible.

“It doesn’t look good for the Desert Rock project. I don’t see how they could possibly find more funds or expect the Navajo Nation to pay the remaining (expense),” Dáilan Long, of the anti-Desert Rock group Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, told the Daily Times. “It should be a signal for them (Navajo Tribal Council) to pull out and dump the whole project.”

The $450 million grant was seen as a way to green-light the project, according to Frank Maisano, spokesperson for Sithe Global, the parent company for Desert Rock.

“I would suspect that if the stimulus money came through, it would be a strong reason for the project to move forward,” Maisano told the Independent last week.

A representative of the Navajo Nation and the Desert Rock development, Doug MacCourt, told the Daily Times that the project was denied due to paperwork, and was not an indication that the project wasn’t viable.

But Nathan Plagens, vice president of the Desert Rock Energy Company, acknowledged to the Daily Times that increased government regulation of fossil-fuel power posed hurdles to the project without the incorporation of the carbon capture technology, and that the company would see how “the politics” play out before moving forward:

Given the ongoing restrictions being added to emissions standards nationwide, Desert Rock likely will wait to see how the politics play out before continuing the permitting process, he said.

“By no means is the project dead,” Plagens said. “There’s still some basis of this project being technically sound, but going forward, you’ve got to figure out and muddle through … the politics and potential regulations.”

Source: http://newmexicoindependent.com/42862/desert-rock-carbon-capture-stimulus-request-denied