Just days before the public comment period is set to end for one of two proposals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce emissions at two New Mexico coal-fired power plants, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet offered his two cents with a letter to the EPA.
Emissions from the plants in question, including nitrogen oxides and mercury, have caused a variety of negative public health impacts, Bennets letter said.
And cleaning up air pollution affecting visibility at key Four Corners tourist destinations, including Mesa Verde National Park, is important to the regions economic future, Bennet said.
The EPA has held numerous public hearings asking residents to weigh in on the regional haze proposals that aim for a more than 80 percent reduction of nitrogen-oxide emissions at the Four Corners Power Plant and the San Juan Generating Station.
In his letter, Bennet applauded the agencys decision to support an alternate proposal from executives with the Four Corners power plant that officials say would reduce emissions more than the original proposal called for while substantially reducing the utilitys costs associated with the retrofits.
Arizona Public Service Co. runs the Four Corners power plan.
Many Durango-area residents also offered support for the proposal at a public hearing held at Fort Lewis College last month.
A recent alternate proposal from Public Service Company of New Mexico, which runs the San Juan Generating Station, however, was met with resistance from some environmental groups, including the Navajo Nations Diné CARE organization.
The utility-proposed plan amounts to nothing more than a cheap air filter, Lori Goodman, president of the organization, said in a news release earlier this month, and it delays real improvements in cleaning up the regions dirty air.