Washington recommends "clean coal" plant be rejected
LOS ANGELES, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A Washington state regulatory board on Tuesday advised the governor to reject plans for Energy Northwest's proposed 680-megawatt integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant because plans do not specify how carbon dioxide emissions would be sequestered underground.
The Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) said in a ruling signed Tuesday that it would reconsider the plant if Energy Northwest submits a workable plan to pump greenhouse gases -- primarily CO2 -- underground.
An Energy Northwest spokesman said on Tuesday that the consortium of 20 member utilities and cities has yet to decide what to do next regarding the proposed Pacific Mountain Energy Center, which has a price tag of at least $1.5 billion.
Energy Northwest has said the Pac Mountain plant is needed to meet growing electricity needs of the Washington public power consortium. Pac Mountain was to have been opened in 2012.
The EFSEC, which make recommendations to the Washington governor who has final say on power plants, said on Tuesday that Energy Northwest's "plan to make a plan" to sequester carbon and buy carbon credits to offset emissions in the meantime does not meet state law.
Washington requires plants such as Pac Mountain to sequester CO2, a technology that has yet to be proven on a scale as large as a utility power plant.
"We conclude that Energy Northwest's proposed greenhouse gas reduction plan fails to meet the requirements of the (state) statute, and must be rejected," said EFSEC's order.
In advising the governor not to allow the plant, the EFSEC acknowledged that Energy Northwest needs to expand its power generation by 2012 for its members, and invited Energy Northwest to "address its situation in a way that allows it, and the EFSEC, to resume application processing in a timely manner."
Energy Northwest operates the only nuclear power plant in the Pacific Northwest, the 1,150-megawatt Columbia Generating Station in Richland, Washington, which is also where Energy Northwest is based.
Pac Mountain's design calls for it to use oil refinery by product petroleum coke or coal or natural gas to be burned to make electricity.
If coal were used at Pac Mountain, it would be crushed and added to water to make a slurry which when combined with oxygen creates a synthetic gas, called syngas. The syngas would then be burned to make steam to turn turbines to make electricity.
Pac Mountain would have two 340-MW IGCC units in at Kalama in Cowlitz County in southwestern Washington, about 45 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall;editing by Carol Bishopric)
