Kenny pushes power plants

Another Clark County commissioner has pledged to expedite power plant construction in the region, this time through the Clark County Health District.

Commissioner Erin Kenny said the District Board of Health will ask the district staff on Thursday to find ways to speed up the process at the local and state level. Politicians in Washington, D.C., Carson City and the Las Vegas area are scrambling to support power plant construction in response to an electricity crisis that started in California and spread throughout the West.

The health district's air quality division oversees pollution regulations, and plays a key role in approving new power plants.

Last week, Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said he will ask the county planning staff to make a similar analysis of what can be done to speed the process.

But on Monday Kenny said the health district plays a larger role.

"The county really has no authority at all, therefore no impact on (the issue)," she said. "The primary board of enforcement is the health district."

Kenny said she has asked the staff to come up with an overview of the timeline issues and a list of recommendations to speed up the process.

She also criticized a health district employee who said last week that perhaps two of at least eight pending applications to build power plants in the county would get built.

Lucinda Parker, acting permitting supervisor for the air quality division, said she had concerns about the impact that new natural-gas-fired power plants would have on air quality in the region. The region is under a federal mandate to clean up certain kinds of air pollution.

Parker and other health district employees couldn't be reached today, a holiday.

Kenny said air quality is still "a number one priority," but the health and safety needs of county residents require new sources of power. She said a goal of the health district overview would be to cut as much time off the two to three year timeline that industry officials say is likely before new power plants can be built.

archive