FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                               

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010  

Contacts:

Randy Francisco, Sierra Club, Pennsylvania, 412-802-6161

Anna Frazier, Coordinator, Diné CARE, 928-380-7697

Rob Disney, Sierra Club, Las Vegas, 702-518-0188

            COAL PLANT FAILS IN PENNSYLVANIA COAL COUNTRY

Health Risks and Controversy Remain At Sites in NM And NV

KARTHAUS (PA) – An international energy developer financed by the giant equity firm, the Blackstone Group, has abandoned plans for a proposed 300 megawatt waste-coal power plant in rural Pennsylvania.

Sithe Global, which is also behind the proposed Toquop coal plant in Nevada and the Desert Rock plant on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, announced on Tuesday they were canceling the $600 million River Hill plant near Karthaus, Pennsylvania due to financing difficulties.  

Progress on Sithe’s other two coal projects has also stalled as a result of permitting and financing difficulties, along with intense opposition from local communities that have alleged the potential harm to their air, water and health far outweighs any economic benefits, and that the company should instead be investing in innovative clean energy sources.

“We have suspected for a long time that the River Hill project was very tenuous at best,” said Randy Francisco, of the Sierra Club in Pennsylvania. “It says a lot about the viability of these dirty coal plant proposals when they can’t get taxpayer bailouts and they can’t make them pencil out even with the backing from a company the size of Blackstone.”

Anna Frazier, coordinator for Dine’ CARE said that the Desert Rock plant is also on equally shaky ground after losing their air permit from the EPA, their permit for the transmission right-of-way needed to get the power to southwest markets, and also being denied their request for $450 million in federal stimulus dollars, all in just 2009.

“The Navajo communities of Northwest New Mexico have always been opposed to Sithe Global’s proposed Desert Rock plant so we are encouraged by the cancellation of the River Hill project,” said Frazier. “In an area that is already under siege from the pollution from fossil fuels development, Desert Rock has been a six-year black hole that has wasted millions of dollars that could have been used to bring clean-energy projects to our region.”

Sithe’s proposed Toquop plant near Mesquite, Nevada, originally proposed as a natural gas-fired plant, has been on the drawing board for years but still does not have a pollution permit, an approved BLM environmental study, and last year lost the rights to water it needs for plant operations.

“We’ve been trying to persuade Sithe for years to focus on developing Nevada’s vast solar and wind resources instead of outdated and dirty coal,” said Mesquite Mayor Susan Holecheck. “Hopefully, Sithe’s decision to abandon the Pennsylvania plant is a signal that we can soon put the nail in Toquop’s coffin, too, and get it out of the way for clean-energy jobs and economic development in Nevada.”

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Polling reveals Nevadans support clean energy and understand the threat of Global Warming.  You can read a summary of the polls here:

Survey:  Nevada and Energy

Survey:  Nevada and Global Warming