By Erin Kelly | The Arizona Republic Washington Bureau
The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday she is encouraged by an alternative plan to cut emissions at the Navajo Generating Station, the northern Arizona power plant critical to the state’s economy.
The plan — advanced by the Salt River Project and its partners in the coal-fired plant near Page — countered the EPA’s proposed order that the plant install nitrogen oxide-reducing catalytic converters to reduce haze that clouds visitors’ views of the Grand Canyon and other national parks. The plant’s owners have estimated the cost at $500 million to $1 billion.
SRP and its partners instead proposed that one of the plant’s three units be shut down by 2020 while pollution-control equipment is installed at the two remaining units by 2030.
“We consider it a significant step forward,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who succeeded former Administrator Lisa Jackson in July.
Related: E.P.A. Rules on Emissions at Existing #Coal Plants Might Give States Leeway
