KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video - Both Sides Sound Off on Proposed Ely Coal Plant
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Environmentalists say a water-sucking, carbon-emitting, coal-fired power plant shouldn't be built anywhere in the world, let alone the high desert of northeast Nevada.
But union workers and business leaders in White Pine County say they desperately need the 2,500 construction jobs the $5 billion project would create.
More than 100 people turned out in Reno last night for the first of four public hearings to be held through next week on the Bureau of Land Management's draft environmental impact statement analyzing the proposal.
NV Energy wants to build it on about 3,000 acres 20 miles north of Ely and about 50 miles west of the Utah state line.
The plan also calls for construction of 250 miles of transmission lines that for the first time would connect northern and southern Nevada's power grid.
That part of the proposal is something even opponents of the coal plant say they would support if the lines were used to move renewable energy, such as geothermal and wind power.
Hearings also are scheduled Tuesday in Las Vegas, Wednesday in Ely and Thursday in Elko.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
