(Source: New Mexico Environment Department) Tons of sulfur dioxide emitted by the San Juan Generating Station in 2020, less than one-fourth of what it emitted in 2013, prior to upgrading pollution controls and shutting down two of four units. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency) Metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted by the San Juan Generating Station each year. But far more worrisome are similar delays regarding the energy transition - not just in the Four Corners region, but across the West. Thus, my desire - and hope - that I could soon bid adieu to at least a portion of the smog.īut now the Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state’s largest utility and the facility’s operator, says that one of the two remaining units on the plant will have to continue operating through the summer to keep the lights on.Īll of which means I’ve had to postpone my party. One of those energy behemoths, the San Juan Generating Station in northwestern New Mexico, was supposed to go dark on June 30, the lost energy generation replaced by a quartet of solar installations, marking a big leap toward a more sustainable energy future. For five decades, a fleet of coal-burning power plants has relentlessly spewed smog-forming, planet-warming and health-harming pollutants into the Colorado Plateau’s air, obscuring the landforms. One day, maybe.Ĭlear days, however, are rare in these parts. And maybe, on a clear day, I could see Navajo Mountain.
The Point is not exactly wilderness, but the high promontory affords an unrivaled view of the Four Corners region, all unfurled below it: The twin humps of the Bears Ears, the jutting shapes of Monument Valley, the sharp edge of Cedar Mesa.
The witness discarded panels lake skin#
The smog-orange end-of-day light would reflect warmly off the faded aluminum of the Budweiser, Coors and Keystone Light cans discarded by long-ago partiers from nearby Cortez, and illuminate the desiccated condom hanging from a tree branch, like the molted skin of a latex lizard. I would drive my trusty 1989 Nissan Sentra along undulating country roads, past hay bales casting long shadows over the fragrant green stubble, past houses and double-wides dwarfed by the big late-model pickup trucks parked next to them.įinally, beyond the last dryland bean field, I’d gingerly make my way beyond the old drill pad to a clearing on the rimrock next to a stand of piñon and juniper. I had plans to make the trip again this July to celebrate a recently expanded vista. On summer nights, I have long made pilgrimages to a high place in southwestern Colorado we call The Point, simply to sit and take in the view. The delayed retirement of a New Mexico coal plant illustrates the West-wide challenges facing more sustainable energy economies. Sign up for our regular newsletters to get it in your inbox. This is an installment of the Landline, a fortnightly newsletter from High Country News about land, water, wildlife, climate and conservation in the Western United States.
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