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New facility near Grants to employ as many as 250
By Jim Maniaci
Staff Writer
WINDOW ROCK - The federal Energy Department announced in Santa Fe
Thursday afternoon a grant of almost $20 million to Peabody Energy for
a new ultra-low emissions coal-fired power plant near Grants.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced the $19.7 million Clean Coal
Power Initiative grant will be to demonstrate for the first time on a
commercial scale new technology to achieve the super-low emissions of
nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
The grant will cover about one-fourth of the $79 million project,
Abraham said.
Peabody's proposed El Segundo Mine, adjacent to the Lee Ranch Mine,
would supply about a million tons of coal for a 300 megawatt electric
generating facility called the Mustang Energy Project, bringing in
between 200 and 250 jobs for the plant, plus an associated by-products
operation, according to Peabody press officer Beth Sutton.
Grants' economy would benefit by having more than $15 million a year of
skilled, high-paying wages and benefits with 150 to 200 of the workers
at the power plant and a projected 50 more jobs in the "regeneration"
operation which would convert the air pollution by-products of sulfur
and nitrogen into fertilizer, Sutton said.
As a rule of thumb, she said the company figures three additional jobs
would be created in the local economy for each power plant job.
Secretary Abraham said the grant is part of President George W. Bush's
10-year $2 billion Clean Coal Power Initiative. The Secretary noted
that coal is America's"most abundant energy resource."
He added, "The project is unique in that it also advances President
Bush's Clear Skies Initiative by controlling harmful emission from the
plant and doing so at a success rate we don't often see in an
industrial setting."
Said Peabody's Roger B. Walcott Jr., executive vice president for
corporate development, "Peabody will continue to advocate research,
development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies. Our
goal for Mustang is to demonstrate technology that will continue to improve
emissions for coal-fueled generating plants." The corporation, based in
St. Louis, is the world's largest private coal company.
Sutton added, "Mustang seeks to demonstrate state-of-the-art technology
to support the industry's drive towards near-zero emissions from
coal-fueled plants." And as the project demonstrates it successes, the
grant would be repaid, she added.
The proprietary technology of one of Peabody's partners, Airborne Clean
Energy Limited Liability Company of Terrace Park, Ohio, is similar to
current tower scrubbers. It will use a sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
agent to scrub out an estimated 99.5 percent of the sulfur dioxide, 98
percent of the nitrogen oxide and 90 percent of the mercury.
"Mustang will minimize emissions and water use by employing low-NOx
burners, fabric filtration and a dry cooling system," while supplying
electricity for an estimated 300,000 families in the southwest, she
said.
In a bar graph, Peabody notes as the U.S. average in 1970 coal-powered
plants pumped 4.37 pounds per million BTU of SO2 and 1.08 pounds per
million British Thermal Units (MBTU) of NOx into the air.
In 2003, the average from power plants in New Mexico had plummeted to
.34 and .5 pounds per MBTU, which was lower than the national average
for SO2 by about two-thirds, but about one-fourth higher than the
national average for NOx.
In comparison, Peabody projects Mustang will produce .02 pounds of SO2
and .01 pounds of NOx, Sutton pointed out.
Because the permit process takes time an environment impact statement> >> usually requires 12-18 months no estimated can be given for a groundbreaking.
The two coal mines and power plant would be about 35 miles from Grants.
The site was chosen, Peabody said, for its access to coal (with a
medium level of sulfur), land, transmission lines and rail service.
Sutton said Peabody also must sell long-term contracts to utilities for
the plant's power as well as look for partners, either for partial
ownership and/or power sales, as the final steps to putting the plant
into operation, once all the permits are obtained.
In addition to Airborne Clean Energy LLC, which is a licensed patent
holder of Airborne Technologies, Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the
other Mustang partners are HPD, Veolia Water Systems, a subsidiary of
Veolia Environment, the largest environment services company in the
world, with American headquarters in Plainfield, Ill., and
international headquarters in Bilbao, Spain, and Icon, Inc., a private minority
engineering corporation in Dayton, Ohio.
Peabody currently also is building two plants of 1,500 megawatts each
in the Midwest.
http://gallupindependent.com/101504peabody20.html
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Peabody Energy is already established in Grants area
By Jim Maniaci
Staff Writer
WINDOW ROCK - Peabody Energy, the world's largest private coal company,
already has a major presence in the Grants area with the Lee Ranch
about 35 miles northwest of Grants.
The mine employs about 250 workers and injects more than $70 million a
year into the local economy through wages, benefits, taxes and vendor
contracts, according to the company's Flagstaff-based press officer,
Beth Sutton.
Last year, Lee Ranch shipped 6.9 million tons of coal recovered from 26
seams that lace a 170-million ton reserve in the San Juan River Basin.
Peabody has coal supply contracts with Tucson Electric Power Company,
Arizona Public Service Company, the Salt River Project, Western Fuels
and the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, which operate several
generating stations in northeastern Arizona and serve millions of
customers.
Sutton said Lee Ranch employees have reclaimed nearly 3,000 acres of
mined land "to a condition that is typically 50 percent more productive
for grazing than native range. Employees have been recognized for
responsible stewardship and safe mining practices nearly a dozen times
since the mining began. This includes an Excellence in Surface Mining
Reclamation Award from the U.S. Interior Department."
The mine is named after Floyd Lee on land that's been worked for
centuries, tracing its heritage back to a Spanish land grant in the
1700s.
Mining began at Lee Ranch in 1985, six years after the initial
exploration and four years after the permit was obtained. Peabody
obtained the mine in an exchange between Hanson Natural Resources
Company and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation in 1993.
Since the 1970s, Peabody also has operated the Black Mesa and Kayenta
Mines on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, with the first sending its
coal through a 270-mile slurry pipe to Laughlin, Nev., for the Mohave
Generating Station and the second shipping its coal via an 85-mile
electric train to the Le Chee Chapter, on the south shore of Lake Powell
east of Page, for the Navajo Generating Station.
The reservation mines are unionized; Lee Ranch is not unionized.
http://gallupindependent.com/101504peabodyenergy.html