RENO, Nev. (AP) _ A privately owned company has at least temporarily pulled the plug on plans to build a coal-fired power plant in White Pine County, less than a month after the state's largest utility did the same with its plans for a similar one near Ely.
White Pine Energy Associates LLC notified state regulators in a letter Thursday it was withdrawing its application to build the White Pine Energy Station.
The company and a partner, Great Basin Transmission LLC, had planned to build a 1,600-megawatt coal-fired electrical generating plant, two transmission lines, substations and other facilities in northeast Nevada.
But the company said in the letter to the Nevada Public Utilities Commission it ``does not intend to refile its application for a Utility Environmental Protection Act (``UEPA'') permit with the Commission until such time as it has obtained its Class I air permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.''
Environmentalists and some politicians, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have opposed the coal plants for fear they would increase air pollution and contribute to global warming.
The commission had been scheduled to receive recommendations on whether to grant a permit for the White Pine Energy Station during technical hearings on the application beginning March 10 and at a March 8 consumer session in Ely. But those hearings have been canceled, the commission said in a statement Thursday.
Last month, NV Energy postponed plans for a 1,500-megawatt plant, citing increasing environmental and economic uncertainties.
The utility is going forward with plans to build new transmission lines but company president Michael Yackira said the $5 billion coal-fired Ely Energy Center could be delayed for up to a decade or until technologies are developed to burn coal with fewer emissions or store carbon byproducts, company president and chief executive Michael Yackira said.
