Utahns Rally Against Nevada Power Plants

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Utah residents are rallying against three proposed coal-fired power plants to be built on the Nevada border. They say the three plants will release an estimated 30-million tons of carbon dioxide each year, along with mercury and other pollutants. And Dr. Tom Kennedy says most of that pollution is bound for Utah:

"Thousands of Utahns became unwitting downwinders the last time Nevada got involved in a nuclear testing program in the 50s and 60s," says Kennedy. "We shouldn't have to be downwinder victims again."

Kennedy is a member of the Utah Clean Air Alliance, which includes more than twenty advocacy groups concerned about the state's worsening air quality. The alliance is asking Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons to keep the power plants from being built. Utah Moms for Clean Air co-founder Dana Clark believes Nevada has other energy options, including wind and solar:

"And we're hoping that Governor Gibbons can be persuaded by enlightened leadership and citizens around the region that pulverized coal is not the right technology for the future. It's too polluting," says Clark. "We want a focus on renewable energies instead."

Kennedy cites a recent medical study estimating air pollution causes as many as two-thousand premature deaths a year along the Wasatch Front. The majority of Utah's air pollutants come from coal-fired power plants and automobiles, according to the Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change.

A public hearing for one of the proposed power plants will be held on January 9th in Ely, Nevada.

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