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The nonprofit cooperative that supplies power to most of rural Utah has asked state regulators to let it update the Bonanza Power Plant near Vernal so it can continue to burn coal for at least another decade.
Deseret Power, the nonprofit cooperative that owns Bonanza, filed paperwork asking the Utah Public Service Commission to let it add selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to the 500-megawatt power plant so it can continue to operate past 2030. Bonanza provides power to rural electric cooperatives in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The plant operates under a settlement agreement reached back in 2015. Two environmental groups – Wild Earth Guardians and the Sierra Club – challenged the plant’s air quality permit issued by the EPA. The resulting settlement allowed Deseret to burn only 20 million more tons of coal, and then either shut down or install SCR at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
At the time, it was thought that Deseret might shut down the plant rather than invest in the expensive pollution-control equipment. But demand for electricity is climbing, as is the cost and time it takes to acquire and connect new energy sources.
Bonanza is vertically integrated. Deseret Power also owns the plant’s coal supply, the Deserado coal mine 35 miles away in western Colorado, and it owns an electrified rail line that carries the coal from the mine to the plant. Deseret Power has no connection to the LDS Church.
12 million more tons
The SCR project “will enable Deseret to take full advantage and utilize all remaining economically recoverable coal reserves under the current federal lease(s) at the Deserado mine, thus making available to Deseret and its members an additional 12 million tons of coal at economical pricing (above the 20-million-ton limit),” said Deseret’s PSC filing. “Combined with the remaining balance of permitted coal, the existing leased reserves remaining in the Deserado reserves will sustain continued operation of Bonanza at approximately its current levels through at least 2041 or 2042.”
Deseret officials declined to answer questions from The Tribune.
Deseret is telling the PSC the application will be “unopposed and uncontested and should be handled by “informal adjudication.”
The Public Service Commission is taking public comment on the filing until May 20.
Sierra Club spokesperson Amy Dominguez questioned whether the project is unopposed.
“A more prudent course of action would be for the company to explore replacing Bonanza with new clean energy, made more affordable thanks to federal incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act and Utah’s incredible solar resources.”
“It’s not possible for Deseret to know whether the project is unopposed and uncontested without allowing the public to respond,” she added. “As for Sierra Club, under the terms of a prior settlement agreement, we are unable to formally contest the request at the commission. Although Sierra Club cannot file written comments in the commission, we will continue to carefully review the application and provide public analysis.”
Wild Earth Guardians declined to comment on Deseret’s filing.
Satisfies ‘Good Neighbor’
Selective catalytic reduction significantly reduces NOx emissions, which are a precursor in the formation of ozone. By adding SCR, Bonanza’s emissions would be low enough to comply with the federal Ozone Transport Rule (OTR). That so-called “good neighbor” rule requires power plants to keep NOx emissions low enough that they won’t increase ozone levels in other states.
But the Ozone Transport Rule, or OTR, currently isn’t being enforced while the Supreme Court weighs whether the rule is legitimate regulation or an overreach by the federal Environmental Protection Agency without the proper congressional approval.
“By adding SCR, Bonanza Unit 1 can operate at levels that would permit operations even under the OTR with reasonably manageable costs associated with compliance strategy for achieving the required emissions limits,” the filing states. ” … The SCR provides the best currently available probability to enable Bonanza Unit 1 to satisfy these and other possible initiatives as part of a reasonable, responsible, near and intermediate term compliance strategy.”
Deseret also noted that Bonanza is in a federally designated “non-attainment area” for ozone. The Uinta Basin, where most of Utah’s oil and gas production happens, has had elevated ozone levels for years despite its low population.
“Reducing NOx emissions in…
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