Energy-Arizona^1.4

Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Review, Editorial, July 11, 2007

There's an important decision pending in the Bowie area - whether a 600-megawatt power plant will be built there.

It's a complex decision, because it not only involves Cochise County authorities, but there are also state and federal regulatory agencies that must eventually sign off on the project.

The decision is also being weighed carefully by those who will be most affected, and that is the people who live in the Bowie area.

The project, which is being developed by Southwestern Power Group II of Phoenix, would involve a new technology that burns gasified coal to run electricity-producing turbine-generators.

Several factors seem to favor this project.

• According to Southwestern General Manager David Getts, there is a wholesale electricity market to tap into in Arizona, which is No. 1 in growth in the United States. Most people would agree that electricity is a necessary modern utility, and the demand for it will increase as communities grow in Arizona.
• There is an abundance of coal in America, particularly in the West. This is not an energy resource that must be imported.
• While the world must move away from dependency on fossil fuels including coal, there will remain in the immediate future a need for conventional power plants. Increased nuclear power is not in the foreseeable cards. And unless there is government incentives and serious technological advances, renewable energy sources such as solar and biomass are still a ways off.
• Industrial and economic development in the northeast corner of Cochise County would gain a significant boost from this project.

There are many questions that still must be answered. How will potential environmental hazards be handled? How will the huge water demand be handled?

Many of these questions should be scrutinized by authorities beyond the scope of the County Board of Supervisors.

Board Chairman Richard Searle said the county is close to hiring a special consultant who will assist in the sorting through miles of red tape involved in this project. We hope this consultant will bring accurate, clear, complete and objective information to the county and its taxpayers. This information needs to be above board and timely. People in the Bowie area are depending on it.

Only then can a final decision be made as to whether to rezone the area for industrial commercial use.