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28 November 2007 -- Regulators in Washington State have stopped the permit application for a $1.5 billion, 793 MW coal-fired power plant in southwest Washington until Energy Northwest, the builder, meets requirements of a new climate change law.
The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council suspended the application until the public power consortium addresses how it will sequester carbon emissions. Energy Northwest's pollution-control plans for the proposed Kalama plant say that carbon sequestration remains unworkable in real-world practice. Until it is workable, the utility wants to pay to offset emissions.
The council rejected that approach, stating in a 12-page order that it "fails to meet the plain language of the statute--it is a plan to prepare a plan at some indefinite later date."
The proposed Pacific Mountain Energy Center would use coal or petcoke that would be turned into gas for power generation. The plant also could burn natural gas. The ruling means Energy Northwest must submit a new plan for dealing with emissions.
The climate change law passed this year bars Washington utilities from signing long-term contracts with coal-fired power plants that produce excessive carbon dioxide. It gives projects such as the proposed plant five years to sequester carbon dioxide emissions underground.
Energy Northwest, a consortium of 20 public utilities and municipalities, operates a nuclear power plant near Richland and a hydropower project, as well as wind, solar and biomass power projects. The proposed plant would be the utility's most ambitious project since a plan to build five nuclear plants in the 1980s collapsed in a $2.25 billion bond default, when the utility was known as the Washington Public Power Supply System.
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