Face The State Staff Report
In a letter sent this week (PDF), state Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, pleads with Attorney General John Suthers to intervene regarding concerns over air pollution in southwest Colorado resulting from the Four Corners Power Plant.
"We're hoping Attorney General Suthers helps us because there is currently a lawsuit going on, which is crossing some very unique lines," Tipton said.
The plant is located on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, so there are jurisdictional issues when trying to curb pollution from the plant. While New Mexico has its own rules regarding air pollution, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state has no jurisdiction over the FCPP because it is located on Native American tribal lands. The Environmental Protection Agency, however, does have jurisdiction and has enacted rules specific to the plant. In 2006, the Sierra Club of New Mexico sued the EPA over the plant's emissions.
In his letter to Suthers, Tipton points out that the FCPP is still the largest single source of nitrogen oxide in the nation and is polluting the air in his district. “Decades of unreasonable emission levels by the FCPP have created a health and safety hazard to the people of Colorado,” he writes.
The EPA is currently in the process of reviewing the plant's nitrogen oxide emissions. Tipton is asking Suthers to join his appeal to the EPA and Interior secretary Ken Salazar, requesting stricter emissions standards at the plant.
Geoff Blue, deputy attorney general for legal policy, said the attorney general’s office has received the letter and is evaluating whether or not to get involved. “We need to sit down and talk about it and decide if we are going to join Tipton,” Blue said. “We have not made a decision yet.”
Salazar’s office would not comment and referred all questions to the EPA, which not return Face The State’s request for an interview.