It puts out as much energy as Hoover Dam, lights up more than 1 million homes in California and two other states and represents the largest source of private income for the Hopi and Navajo Nations of Arizona and New Mexico.
But the Mohave Generating Station is also a giant polluter. Towering over the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nev., the power plant is the biggest uncontrolled source of sulfur dioxide in the Southwest, one of the nation's leading producers of gases that contribute to global warming and, according to federal officials, a prime contributor to the gaseous haze that clouds visibility over the Grand Canyon.
Moreover, the pipeline that moves coal to the plant drains 1 billion gallons a year of drinking water, imperiling an aquifer that is one of the arid region's most important water sources, critics say.
Now, the plant's continued existence is in question as a coalition of environmental groups go to court to demand a cleanup that could cost more than $200 million--more than the plant is worth, its owners say.
The conflict potentially pits the interests of the environment against the economic needs of some of the nation's poorest citizens--the Native Americans of the Southwest. The implications of that debate go far beyond the region.
As the world's nations seek to curb pollution--particularly the carbon dioxide emissions that may fuel global climate change--conflicts between the environment and the economy are certain to recur.
The Mohave case "gives you a sneak preview of the dilemmas to come as we try to grapple with the implications of global warming and air pollution in developing nations that depend on the energy industry," said S. David Freeman, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The DWP is one of the four utilities, including Southern California Edison, that own the Mohave plant.
Environmentalists gave formal notice in December that they would sue the plant's owners in 60 days over the generator's impact on air quality over the Grand Canyon and near the plant.
They insist that they are not trying to shut Mohave down. But coal-fired power plants, built in an era when other fuels, such as natural gas, were more costly, may now be less profitable than they once were. With other sources of power available, and with the electric power industry moving toward a new, fiercely competitive era of deregulation, cleaning up Mohave may not be worth the cost.
In the United States, coal-fired power plants such as Mohave account for 25% of the nation's output of the greenhouse gases that stoke global warming. There are 900 such plants, and the Mohave facility is among the top 6% of greenhouse-gas generators, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Utility officials are seeking a compromise way out of the dilemma. But if that fails, the case could set up a conflict in which impoverished Native Americans are forced to bear the economic burden of cleaner air--something that could backfire on the environmental movement.
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Even as the Mohave generator releases 40,000 tons of pollutants into the air each year, the power plant and the coal mine that fuels it pump $30 million a year into the two reservations. Indeed, 80% of the Hopis' annual budget comes from the plant and related mining operations.
Environmentalists want the plant's owners to install scrubber technology to clean the generator's emissions. But doing that would increase the cost of the plant, something Freeman argues against.
"My instincts would be to shut it down and to cut down on the burning of fossil fuel in general," he said. Even if he wanted to keep the plant open, "I ain't got the money to pay for scrubbers," he added, referring to the DWP's $4-billion debt.
At Southern California Edison, whose 40% ownership is the biggest single stake in the 27-year-old plant, officials also say that they doubt it would be competitive if forced to install scrubbers.
"Our costs without scrubbers are already as high as most plants with scrubbers," said Nader Mansour, Edison's manager of environmental regulation.
Environmentalists question those assertions, as do some federal officials.
"Our best guess is that the plant can remain competitive even with scrubbers," said Christine Shaver, chief of the National Park Service's air resource division.
Utility officials say that the plant is expensive in part because the cost of the coal that the plant burns reflects a share of the $1.2 billion in royalties and taxes paid over the years to the Navajo and Hopi. Some costs also are due to the operations of a unique coal slurry that supplies the plant.
The only one of its kind in the country, the slurry delivers coal mixed with water from the Black Mesa mine, which straddles the Navajo and Hopi reservations 273 miles to the east.
If the plant were to shut down, the pipeline would have no purpose, and the remote mine would have no other means of getting coal to market, say officials of Peabody Western Coal Co., which owns the mine.
