The environmentalists are certainly targeting the Trans-Alta coal-fired steam plant in Centralia. Their aim: shut it down and make Washington state the poster child as the first state to rely on coal-free energy.
As detailed in a front-page story in The Chronicle on Thursday, the Sierra Club and other green groups took their case against TransAlta to the Pollution Control Hearings Board in Lacey. They’re asking for stricter emissions limits.
Kathleen Ridihalgh, the senior regional representative with the Sierra Club’s office in Seattle, said because Washington is not as coal reliant as other states, particularly in the East, it makes it easier to keep the Evergreen State from using coal for power.
“If we can’t do it here in Washington, it’s going to be really hard to do it in Ohio, and if we’re not going to be able to do it in the Midwest, it might be too late by then,” she said.
The latest shot at TransAlta came from the Democrats in our state Legislature. On Friday, several Democratic state senators introduced Senate Bill 6573, which, if passed, would end a sales tax exemption for TransAlta.
It would save the state an estimated $5 million a year.
The Sierra Club was ready with a press release. Their intention is clear: “The Sierra Club is working to protect public health and the environment by making Washington the nation’s first coal-free state.”
The agreement to give TransAlta a tax break came back in 1997 with then Democratic Gov. Gary Locke. In order to keep the mine and power plant in operation, TransAlta agreed to install about $230 million in pollution scrubbers. In exchange it received the tax break that today is in question.
The scrubbers reduced sulfur dioxide emissions from the Centralia plant by 90 percent, making it one of the cleanest in the Northwest.
What has changed since the tax incentives were agreed upon was the closure of the Centralia mine and the loss of about 600 jobs. That was an economic tragedy back in 2006, but 300 jobs at the power plant remain. And so do the pollution-cutting scrubbers.
TransAlta continues to work on lowering its emissions, taking voluntary steps in agreeing with Gov. Chris Gregoire last year to reduce mercury emissions by 50 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 20 percent.
TransAlta remains one of the cleanest coal-powered electrical plants in North America. The 1,376-megawatt plant provides 10 percent of Washington state’s power.
Perhaps the Sierra Club should target those plants that remain spewing the high levels of sulfur dioxide. The Sierra Club shouldn’t be targeting one of the cleanest states in the land.
We’re not interested in being the poster child of the environmental groups of the United States.
