Agency responds to Reid request with boxes of data

WASHINGTON -- Skeptical of clean air claims about a proposed 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant in White Pine County, Sen. Harry Reid asked a Nevada state agency to supply him with verifying information.

The answers to any questions might be found somewhere within 23 boxes that arrived at Reid's office in the past few days.

The Democratic senator got more than he asked for, to say the least. Whether the material is helpful may be another thing altogether. The boxes are filled with reams of indecipherable computer codes except for one box that contains binders of the public application that was filed by Sierra Pacific Resources to build the Ely Energy Center.

The cardboard boxes are stacked outside Reid's suite in the Hart Office Building in Washington, D.C. Shipping from Carson City cost $300, a state spokesman said.

"I was hoping the department would send me something a little more concise that would back up its claims regarding the proposed coal plant's emissions," Reid said Wednesday. "Unfortunately, computer printouts of raw data are useless. It would have been more helpful if the agency would have provided modeling data in a form that could have been read using the applicable computer program."

None too happy about what he considers a document dump, Reid plans to forward the material to the Environmental Protection Agency's appeals court, aides said. He will include a letter telling the EPA to expect to hear protests if the coal plant wins state approval, they said.

Reid was sent exactly what he requested, which was completed modeling data to verify the Ely Energy Center would meet all air quality standards, said Dante Pistone, spokesman for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

"This is what they asked for," Pistone said. "We certainly did not want to minimize or in any way not respond accordingly to a request from the senior senator from Nevada."

Agency administrator Leo Drozdoff said in a cover letter that his staff would be available to answer Reid's questions about what he was being sent.

"We have not heard back from them as to whether they want our assistance but the offer still stands," Pistone said.

Reid has been campaigning against the Sierra Pacific project and also coal-fired power plants being planned by LS Power in White Pine County and Sithe Global Power near Mesquite. He contends that coal-fired plants should have no place in Nevada's energy future because of pollution they generate.

Project supporters say it is unrealistic to scuttle coal altogether, and that the plants are being designed to be as clean as possible.

The state Division of Environmental Protection issued Sierra Pacific Resources a draft air quality permit last Nov. 11 and is reviewing public comments before deciding whether to approve a final permit.

Reid asked to see the agency's data after permitting supervisor Francisco Vega was quoted at a Jan. 9 public hearing in Ely that the Sierra Pacific venture "will meet all state and federal air quality standards."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@ stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760.