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Letter-to-the-editor
messaging for TEP’s RICE Proposal These points were prepared by the Grand Canyon Chapter of
the Sierra Club. Summary: · Tucson Electric Power
(TEP) is failing to invest in Arizona’s abundance of low cost renewable
energy potential. Instead, TEP is now planning to install ten 20 megawatt gas-fired
power plants, also known as reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE),
at the H. Wilson Sundt Generating Station on East
Irvington Road. It’s time to stop investing in the unstable fossil fuel
industry that’s polluting our air and water, damaging our climate, and
holding back the growing clean energy economy that will create opportunities
that will last for generations. Details of the RICE Project: · The Reciprocating
Internal Combustion Engine (RICE) Generation Project involves new gas-fired
generation to replace the aging gas-fired steam generation units at the H.
Wilson Sundt Generating Station on East Irvington
Road. · The RICE Generation
Project would be composed of 10 gas-powered units capable of producing about
20 Megawatts (MW) each, for a build-out total of 200 MW. · The RICE Generation
Project is currently estimated to cost about $180 million. · The planned
construction start date is April 2, 2018. The first five units would begin
operation in the summer of 2019 and the remaining five would be online in
early 2020. Opportunity for public input: · The
Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is holding a second
public meeting to get feedback from the community on March 28, 2018 from
5:30-6:30 p.m. · The meeting will be held
at the Pima County Public Works Building, 201 N Stone, basement Conference Room C,
Tucson 85701 LTE Submission page and details: · Arizona Daily Star: https://speedway.tucson.com/letters/?action=letter LTE topics and supporting facts: 1. Arizona’s economy will
benefit more from in-state renewable energy projects: o Arizona does not
produce gas in-state and has to import all of it from other states. o TEP’s service
territory sits in one of the richest renewable resource zones in the country. o TEP should join
utilities throughout the country that are taking advantage of tax credits and
falling renewable energy prices. o Renewable energy
creates far more jobs than fossil fuels. According to the Department of Energy,
Arizona’s clean energy and energy efficiency industries already employ nearly
5 times as many people as the fossil fuel industry, and there is much room to
grow. 2.
Right now we have an opportunity to end
decades of environmental injustice o Neighborhoods in southeast
Tucson have suffered from decades of coal and gas pollution from the Sundt plant. o There are significant
environmental justice issues with this plant as the impact area has an 85%
minority population and a 63% of the residents are low-income. o Tucson Electric Power
(TEP) is now planning to replace aging gas-fired power plants with ten new 20
megawatt gas plants instead of investing in Arizona’s abundance of low cost
renewable energy potential. o This plant will be a
major emitter of hazardous air pollutants that are harmful to our health,
including benzene, fluorene, naphthalene, and
toluene. o It’s time to stop
spending our money on the fossil fuel industry that’s polluting our air and
water and to instead invest in near zero emissions options are available and
increasingly affordable. o The
Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) can ensure the health
and safety of our community by rejecting these gas-fired plants. 3.
Emissions from gas extraction, transmission,
and generation pose a public and environmental health threat: o This plant will be a
major emitter of hazardous air pollutants that are harmful to our health,
including benzene, fluorene, naphthalene, and
toluene. o This proposal will
cause a net increase in pollution from particulate matter, carbon monoxide,
volatile organic compounds, and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide, and sulfur hexafluoride. o Gas extraction harms
wildlife, disrupts ecosystems, and has been proven to contaminate water and
even cause earthquakes throughout the U.S. o Gas is not clean, and
burning the fossil fuel still emits about 60 percent as much heat-trapping carbon
dioxide as coal. o Fracking for gas
releases vast amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 80 times more
heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide pollution. o TEP’s target to serve
only 30% of its load with renewable energy by 2030 is not nearly ambitious
enough to protect Arizona’s air and water and to limit the impacts of climate
change. ### -- Chapter Director Sierra Club - Grand Canyon Chapter Phone (602) 253-8633 Mobile (602) 999-5790 http://www.sierraclub.org/arizona |
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