UTAH REGIONAL HAZE PROPOSED RULE
PUBLIC HEARING
01/26/2016
______
Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc. 216 16th Street, Suite 600 Denver Colorado, 80202 303-296-0017 PUBLIC HEARING
EPA's Proposed Rulemaking Action: Utah Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) and Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for Regional Haze
January 26, 2016 - 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Location: Salt Lake City Public Library 4th Floor Conference Room 210 East 400 South Salt Lake City, Utah 8411
Reporter: Teri Hansen Cronenwett Certified Realtime Reporter, Registered Merit Reporter Notary Public in and for the State of Utah Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 A P P E A R A N C E S
2 Elyana Sutin, Administrative Hearing Officer
3 Monica Morales, EPA Region 8
4 Gail Fallon, EPA Region 8
5 Rich Mylott, EPA Region 8
6 Jaslyn Dobrahner, EPA Region 8
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 2 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 January 26, 2016 1:02 p.m.
2 P R O C E E D I N G S
3 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Good afternoon
4 everyone. I think we're going to get started so if we
5 could quiet the room. We have a lot of people here
6 today, so thank you all for coming.
7 My name is Elyana Sutin. I'm with the EPA in
8 Denver, Colorado. I will be presiding over the hearing
9 this afternoon as well as this evening. This hearing is
10 now officially in session.
11 The subject of today's hearing is the
12 Environmental Protection Agency's co-proposal for Utah's
13 Regional Haze State Implementation Plan or SIP. Our
14 rulemaking action co-proposes two different approaches.
15 The first approach fully approves Utah's Regional Haze
16 SIP, addresses the requirements of the federal rules for
17 regional haze.
18 The second approach partially approves and
19 partially disapproves Utah's Regional Haze SIP,
20 proposing a Federal Implementation Plan or FIP for those
21 elements of the SIP for which we are proposing
22 disapproval. You will hear more detail regarding the
23 two approaches in the proposed action from Monica
24 Morales, who is sitting next to me, momentarily.
25 The fact sheet on the table in the back of the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 3 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 room explains how you may submit written comments to
2 EPA's proposed action, and also gives the Federal
3 Register citation for the proposed action.
4 Jaslyn Dobrahner is seated at the back of the
5 room, although I think at the moment she might be out.
6 But she will be seated at the back of the room. She is
7 holding up her hand. Can you do that again, Jaslyn?
8 Thanks.
9 She can assist you with obtaining a fact sheet
10 or completing a registration card if you wish to speak.
11 I will explain a little bit more about the registration
12 card in a moment.
13 This hearing is a means for EPA to listen to
14 your comments on the proposed action that has been
15 published as a Federal Register proposed rule. Before I
16 turn it over to Monica, let me explain a bit about the
17 process and a few ground rules for the hearing.
18 When EPA takes action on a State
19 Implementation Plan or a Federal Implementation Plan, it
20 is required to do so through rulemaking. This
21 rulemaking is governed by laws passed by Congress. For
22 SIPs, it's the Administrative Procedures Act. For FIPs,
23 it's the Clean Air Act.
24 In either case EPA must publish a proposed
25 rule in the Federal Register, take public comment on the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 4 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 proposed rule, and publish a final rule in the Federal
2 Register after considering comments.
3 In the case of FIPs, EPA is also required to
4 conduct a hearing which is what we're doing today.
5 After considering all the comments, EPA may decide to
6 make changes to the proposed rule or it may decide to
7 move forward and finalize one of the approaches in the
8 proposed rule.
9 We are here today to listen to your comments.
10 We will attempt to answer any clarifying questions about
11 the process or what's contained in the proposed action.
12 But we are not here today to explain the basis for the
13 proposed action. The Federal Register notice does that.
14 We cannot engage in a back-and-forth discussion of the
15 proposed action or respond to your comments during this
16 hearing. The purpose of the hearing is to receive your
17 input. We will consider and then respond to all
18 comments received during this hearing, as well as any
19 written comments in a final Federal Register rule.
20 If you have already made comments, there is no
21 need to repeat them today. They will be included. We
22 are recording our proceedings here today. So be assured
23 that your comments will be considered.
24 The court reporter, sitting to my left, will
25 be preparing a transcript of today's proceeding. That
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 5 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 will be available for anyone who wants to see it. The
2 transcript is part of the record and will be included in
3 the rulemaking docket. The rulemaking docket is where
4 EPA collects materials it has considered in its
5 rulemaking action, including public comments.
6 The docket is available on the Internet for
7 review at regulations.gov, or you can view a hard copy
8 at EPA's Denver office. Specific instructions for
9 accessing the docket are described in the Federal
10 Register notice, the proposed rulemaking and on the fact
11 sheet that we've made available. The transcript of this
12 hearing will also be available in the rulemaking docket.
13 Before we begin taking your comments, first
14 allow me to take a moment to set the stage; that is, to
15 explain how the hearing will be run. After I speak,
16 Monica Morales will explain the details of the proposed
17 action. She will explain EPA's proposed action to
18 approve the state SIP, as well as what EPA is proposing
19 in its FIP, based on the federal Clean Air Act
20 requirements for regional haze.
21 I will then call people to speak based on the
22 registration card that was filled out when you arrived.
23 I will provide the registration card to the court
24 reporter to assist in the spelling of your name. Please
25 spell your name before beginning your remarks. If you
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 6 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 are reading from a written statement, it would be
2 helpful, though not required, if you could provide a
3 copy of your statement to the court reporter or our
4 staff at the registration table, after you make your
5 remarks.
6 Please speak slowly and clearly so the court
7 reporter can accurately capture your statement. Also,
8 there is space on the back of the registration card for
9 providing short written comments if anyone wishes to do
10 so. If you are only here to observe, there is no need
11 to fill out a registration card.
12 I would like to stress that we have quite a
13 few people here today. I don't know that everybody
14 wants to speak, but I want to ensure that everyone has
15 the opportunity to speak about the proposed action. To
16 that end, please consider, after you have made your
17 statement, leaving so that those -- if you look behind
18 you, all those people out there are trying to also come
19 in and make a statement. So if you could please allow
20 them the opportunity and the time to come in, it would
21 be greatly appreciated by everyone.
22 In order to have things move quickly, I need
23 to keep people's comments brief, three minutes or less
24 at least in the beginning. Please try to be as succinct
25 and on point as you can. If I find that we are straying
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 7 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 from the topic at hand, I will interrupt and ask that
2 you please return to the issue before us.
3 If we have time at the end and everyone has
4 had a chance to speak, you -- and you have more to say
5 then the time you were given, then I'll allow people to
6 get back up and finish their comments.
7 Also, please know that this first hearing ends
8 as five o'clock today. We'll take an hour break and
9 we're back here at 6:00. So if you do not have a chance
10 to speak and want to come back at six o'clock, you can
11 do so.
12 Gail Fallon, sitting on the other side of
13 Monica, will assist with monitoring speaker times by
14 raising a yellow card when 30 seconds of time remains
15 and raising a pink card when your time has expired. So
16 that's how we will proceed.
17 We're going to get started here. Next to
18 speak will be Monica Morales from EPA. After Monica,
19 Bryce Bird from the Utah Department of Environmental
20 Quality will speak after her. Thank you.
21 MONICA MORALES: Good afternoon. My name is
22 Monica Morales. I'm the unit chief for the air quality
23 planning unit in EPA's Region 8 office in Denver. As
24 you heard from Ms. Sutin, this hearing concerns EPA's
25 proposed action on a portion of Utah's Regional Haze
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 8 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 State Implementation Plan that addresses the
2 requirements pertaining to particulate matter and
3 nitrogen oxide and visibility impacts, those pollutants
4 have wilderness areas and national parks, also known as
5 Class 1 areas under the Regional Haze Rule.
6 Our proposed action was published in the
7 Federal Register on January 14, 2016. You should have
8 received a regional haze fact sheet when you signed in.
9 This fact sheet provides a general background on EPA's
10 Regional Haze Rule and explains some of the terms and
11 acronyms that will be discussed during the hearing. I
12 encourage those of you who are not familiar with the
13 Regional Haze Rule to take a look at the fact sheet. We
14 have also posted the fact sheet on EPA's Region 8
15 website.
16 The portion of Utah's Regional Haze State
17 Implementation Plan or SIP upon which one of EPA's
18 proposed action is based includes requirements for
19 PacifiCorp's Hunter, Huntington and Carbon coal-fired
20 plants. These plants are located in central Utah.
21 PacifiCorp operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Utah.
22 Our January 14, 2016 rulemaking action
23 co-proposes two different approaches. The first
24 approach fully approves Utah's regional haze SIP,
25 addressing the requirements of the Regional Haze Rule
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 9 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 under 40 Code of Federal Regulations 51.309(g). And the
2 second approach partially approves and partially
3 disapproves Utah's regional haze SIP proposing a Federal
4 Implementation Plan or FIP, for those elements of the
5 SIP for which we are proposing disapproval.
6 Under our first approach, EPA is proposing to
7 fully approve the two Regional Haze SIP revisions
8 submitted by Utah in 2015. Specifically, we are
9 proposing to approve the following: The state's
10 particulate matter best available retrofit technology,
11 or what we call BART, determinations for PacifiCorp's
12 Hunter Units 1 and 2 and Huntington Units 1 and 2. The
13 states's nitrogen oxide BART alternative for
14 PacifiCorp's Hunter Units 1, 2 and 3, Huntington Units 1
15 and 2 and Carbon Units 1 and 2. The state's monitoring,
16 recordkeeping and reporting requirements in part H of
17 Utah's SIP for the particulate matter BART
18 determinations and the nitrogen oxide BART alternative.
19 Under our second approach, we are proposing to
20 approve only the portion -- portions of the state's SIP
21 that pertain to particulate matter BART and the
22 associated particulate matter monitoring, recordkeeping
23 and reporting requirements for the BART sources. We are
24 proposing to find that some aspects of the Utah Regional
25 Haze SIP are inconsistent with the regulatory and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 10 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 statutory requirements.
2 As a result, we are proposing to disapprove
3 the state's NOx and nitrogen oxygen BART alternative for
4 PacifiCorp's Hunter Units 1, 2 and 3, Huntington Units 1
5 and 2 and Carbon Units 1 and 2, and the associated
6 nitrogen oxide monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting
7 requirements for the nitrogen oxide BART alternative.
8 We are proposing the promulgation of a FIP to
9 address the deficiencies in those portions of the
10 state's SIP which we are proposing to disapprove.
11 The co-proposed FIP includes the following
12 elements: NOx BART determinations and emission limits
13 for PacifiCorp's Hunter Units 1 and 2 and Huntington
14 Units 1 and 2, and also the monitoring, recordkeeping
15 and reporting requirements applicable to the four BART
16 units for which there is a FIP emission limit.
17 As part of the public comment process, EPA
18 specifically is requesting that interested parties
19 provide any additional information or analysis regarding
20 the proposed action. For example, modeled visibility
21 benefits of the BART alternative compared to BART, and
22 whether the interested parties think EPA should consider
23 options that differ somewhat from the proposed BART
24 alternative or the BART control technology option, which
25 could be finalized as our FIP if we disapprove the Utah
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 11 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 SIP in our final action.
2 EPA will consider all public comments and
3 information received, including additional options for
4 control technology and timing, before issuing our final
5 action.
6 We anticipate that there will be differing
7 views regarding the state's BART alternative SIP and
8 what course of action EPA should take. This is because
9 of the complex nature of the BART alternative, the
10 analysis that supports it, consideration of that
11 analysis under the statutory regulatory framework and
12 the implications of EPA's actions.
13 Given these considerations, EPA decided to
14 solicit comments to support either a proposed action to
15 approve the state's SIP in its entirety, or a proposed
16 action to partially approve and partially disapprove the
17 state SIP and propose a FIP.
18 As it has done with other states, EPA would
19 work with the state on a revised state plan should a
20 partial disapproval and FIP be finalized. If EPA
21 finalizes our federal plan and the state finalizes a
22 revised plan that adequately addresses regional haze,
23 our federal plan could be superseded upon our approval
24 of the state's revised plan.
25 We are accepting written comments for 60 days
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 12 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 after the proposed action was published in the Federal
2 Register on January 14th, 2016. Written comments must
3 therefore be received by EPA on or before March 14th,
4 2016.
5 Your comments are encouraged. We will
6 consider all comments in finalizing our action on the
7 state's Regional Haze Plan and our federal plan.
8 Thank you. We appreciate your attendance
9 afternoon. And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Bryce Bird
10 with the state of Utah as our first commenter.
11 BRYCE BIRD: Good afternoon. My name is Bryce
12 Bird, B-R-Y-C-E, and B-I-R-D. I am the air quality
13 division director of the Utah Department of
14 Environmental Quality. We appreciate this opportunity
15 to comment on EPA's dual proposal to either approve or
16 partially approve and disapprove the Utah Regional Haze
17 State Implementation Plan.
18 Utah supports the EPA's finding that full
19 approval of the alternative to BART section of the
20 Regional Haze SIP meets all of the requirements of the
21 current Clean Air Act and the Regional Haze Rule. We
22 also note our support of EPA's finding that the BART
23 alternative provides a greater visibility benefit than
24 BART.
25 Throughout the SIP development process, we
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 13 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 have worked as regulatory partners, closely and
2 extensively with EPA staff, to ensure that Utah's
3 alternative to BART SIP revisions met all of the
4 requirements of the Clean Air Act and was approvable by
5 EPA. The EPA should approve of the option that Utah
6 developed in close consultation with EPA and not the
7 option that Utah was not even aware it was being
8 prepared or under consideration until it was signed by
9 the regional administrator.
10 As the EPA evaluates comments and makes its
11 final decision on the Utah SIP submitted, we remind EPA
12 that the goal of the Regional Haze Rule, according to
13 the Clean Air Act, is the prevention of any future and
14 the remediating of any existing impairment of visibility
15 in mandatory Class 1, federal areas.
16 Though we acknowledge that exposure to NOx has
17 health impacts, the purpose of this SIP and the Regional
18 Haze Rule is to improve visibility. It does not
19 establish any health standards. Additionally, we note
20 that the region is currently in attainment for all
21 health standards, including oxides of nitrogen.
22 Preserving and improving visibility at our
23 national parks is very important to the state of Utah
24 and its citizens. That is why Utah has been working for
25 decades on this issue. The BART alternative submitted
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 14 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 by Utah is just the latest piece of comprehensive
2 strategy developed to address regional haze.
3 Let me share with you what Utah has done over
4 the decades to address this issue. Utah's visibility
5 protection programs and Utah's prevention of significant
6 deterioration programs were adopted in the early 1980s
7 to address the visibility goals established in the 1977
8 Clean Air Act.
9 In the mid 1980s, Utah's Governor Bangerter
10 appointed the Task Force on Visibility Protection to
11 determine the appropriate level of protection for Utah's
12 Class 1 areas, and to determine sources of impairment of
13 visibility in those areas. After more than a year of
14 investigation, the task force recommended that all Utah
15 Class 1 areas needed protection, and the biggest cause
16 of visibility impairment is not an individual industrial
17 source, but rather regional haze from a multitude of
18 sources that is transported over long distances.
19 In 1991 EPA established the Grand Canyon
20 Visibility Transport Commission as required by the 1990
21 Clean Air Act. Utah's Governor Bangerter was the vice
22 chair of the commission, and Utah was an active
23 participant in this process.
24 In 1996, the commission finalized a
25 comprehensive series of recommendations that addressed
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 15 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 the multiple emission sources and pollutants that
2 contributed to regional haze on the Colorado Plateau.
3 These recommendations were the basis of Utah's Regional
4 Haze SIP.
5 Utah was an active participant in the Western
6 Regional Air Partnership. That was the follow-up
7 organization to the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport
8 Commission. Utah's Governor Leavitt co-chaired the
9 Western Regional Air Partnership, and Utah
10 representatives were cochairs or members of many of the
11 WRAP's forums.
12 The WRAP established an extensive
13 stakeholder-based process to further develop the Grand
14 Canyon Visibility Transport Commission's recommendations
15 and to improve the technical understanding of the causes
16 of regional haze in the western states. They used these
17 recommendations and the technical understanding to
18 develop effective strategies to improve visibility to
19 Class 1 areas throughout the West. Throughout this
20 process, Utah has worked closely with the National Park
21 Service, the EPA and other western states.
22 Utah's Regional Haze SIP was focused on
23 reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide from stationary
24 sources because sulfur dioxide is the most significant
25 anthropogenic pollutant contributing to the haze on the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 16 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Colorado Plateau. The SIP was adopted five years
2 earlier than was required for the rest of the country
3 due to the significant work in Utah, that Utah, EPA and
4 federal land managers and other stakeholders had done
5 together to address the visibility on the Colorado
6 Plateau through the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport
7 Commission.
8 The current control strategies in the state's
9 Regional Haze SIP have improved visibility at the
10 federal Class 1 areas in the state, and have also
11 benefitted Class 1 areas outside of Utah that might be
12 impacted by emissions from Utah and met all requirements
13 of the first planning period.
14 The emissions reduction strategies in Utah's
15 Regional Haze SIP have been implemented and are
16 effective. The State of Utah has developed the Utah
17 Smoke Management Plan that provides operating procedures
18 for federal and state agencies that use prescribed fire,
19 wildfire and wildland fire on federal, state and private
20 lands in Utah. Mobile oxide nitrogen emissions have
21 decreased state-wide in line with the level of
22 reductions in the four main urban counties of Weber,
23 Davis, Salt Lake and Utah where emissions are projected
24 to decrease by 42,000 tons per year, or 61 percent by
25 2018 from 2002 levels.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 17 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 It is important to point out that even greater
2 initial reductions will be achieved by 2018 than have
3 been anticipated in the Utah Regional Haze SIP due to
4 federal Tier 3 rule and vehicle standards that were
5 adopted in 2014. The alternative to BART measures
6 included the proposed revision of Utah's -- in the
7 proposed revision of Utah's SIP will have decreased SO2
8 emissions by 27,947 tons and NOx emissions by 15,258
9 tons from the 2002 levels by 2015.
10 The Grand Canyon Visibility Transport
11 Commission set a goal of achieving 10 percent of
12 electrical generation from renewable sources by 2005 and
13 20 percent by 2015. Significant progress has been
14 achieved toward meeting these regional goals. Thirteen
15 percent of electricity generation in Utah was from
16 renewable resources in 2012, and significant new
17 resources are currently under construction.
18 In summation, Utah's Regional Haze SIP
19 reflects the state's commitment to improve visibility
20 and focus on the strategies that will provide the best
21 benefit to visibility in Class 1 areas.
22 As I've already mentioned, Utah has achieved
23 significant reductions in haze-causing pollutants.
24 While the visibility modeling predicted a significant
25 improvement in visibility due to emissions reductions
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 18 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 made during the current planning period, there has not
2 been an equivalent actual improvement in visibility at
3 mandatory Class 1 areas. Based on actual observations,
4 it appears that the current model consistently
5 over-predicts the visibility benefits.
6 Therefore, the actual monitored data should be
7 considered more heavily than modelling when determining
8 the efficiency of visibility controls. However, due --
9 however, to the extent that the model can be relied
10 upon, we note that the alternate BART scenario shows a
11 greater improvement to regional visibility than
12 requiring selective catalytic reduction to control
13 oxides of nitrogen on the Huntington and Hunter subject
14 to BART units.
15 EPA's second proposed action to finalize the
16 Federal Implementation Plan states that averaging the
17 number of days with impacts greater than 1.0 deciview
18 across all affected Class 1 areas is not a relevant
19 metric. The proposal further states that because of
20 averaging, the results for the total number of days with
21 impacts of -- sorry -- over 1.0 deciview on Class 1
22 area-by-area basis are not clear in supporting the BART
23 alternative.
24 EPA has applied the average impairment metric
25 consistently in other states, as allowed by the regional
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 19 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 haze rules, and should do so in this case. Furthermore,
2 averaging visibility improvement is the best way to
3 measure it because it counts each Class 1 area as equal.
4 An evaluation that claims improvements at some sites are
5 greater under BART versus the alternative gives more
6 importance to one Class 1 area over another.
7 In its FIP proposal, the EPA states that it is
8 not appropriate to combine all three pollutants in the
9 annual emissions comparison test. However, an
10 evaluation that considers each pollutant individually
11 gives great weight to one pollutant over another and is
12 contrary to the stated goal to improve visibility.
13 Under Utah's proposed alternative to BART
14 scenario, two of the three haze-causing pollutants,
15 sulfur dioxide and the PM10 are reduced more than under
16 the BART scenario. Therefore, the overall pollution
17 reduction is greater under Utah's alternative to BART
18 scenario.
19 Our monitoring data indicate that ammonia is
20 the limiting factor in the formation of nitrate and
21 sulfate. Therefore, reducing nitrogen oxide and sulfur
22 dioxide emissions is not anticipated to have a
23 corresponding improvement to visibility. Because the
24 visibility modeling used a much higher value for ammonia
25 than is actually present, this could explain the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 20 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 discrepancy between the model's over-prediction and the
2 lack of measured visibility improvement.
3 In EPA's dual proposal, the EPA is considering
4 two options, the first being approval of the Utah
5 Regional Haze SIP. The second will be a partial
6 disapproval of the SIP and imposition of a FIP or
7 Federal Implementation Plan that requires selective
8 catalytic reduction on the Hunter and Huntington units.
9 Because Utah has already implemented controls
10 under the first option, imposing a FIP under the second
11 option would effectively require all controls from both
12 options. The cost effectiveness of this option to
13 partially disapprove the Utah SIP and impose a FIP
14 should be evaluated based on the cost to implement all
15 controls from the beginning to the end of the current
16 planning period. The visibility benefit of the cost of
17 controls should factor heavily in EPA's justification
18 for requiring SCR.
19 A simple reliance on NOx emissions reductions
20 and questionable cost estimates to install the controls
21 results in imposed cost without corresponding visibility
22 benefits and should be rejected as not meeting the
23 stated goal to improve visibility.
24 The precedent established by imposing a FIP
25 after the controls required in the SIP were already
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 21 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 installed will provide interest to current and future
2 SIP development processes. Based on this action, no
3 SIP-affected source would ever begin to design or
4 install any SIP-required control measure until after the
5 SIP was fully approved by the EPA.
6 The EPA's proposal to partially disapprove of
7 the Regional Haze SIP is based on an analysis that
8 accounts for conditions as they are currently. This is
9 inconsistent with the Regional Haze Rule which requires
10 all options to be evaluated from beginning of the
11 current planning period. This is the standard that was
12 required for Utah. We respectfully request that EPA
13 adhere to the same standard.
14 The EPA acknowledges that in the proposed --
15 in the proposal to approve that the controls required by
16 the Utah Regional Haze SIP are installed and therefore
17 meet the requirement that all necessary emissions
18 reductions take place during the period of the first
19 long-term strategy for regional haze.
20 The EPA states in its proposed FIP that
21 installation SCR or the BART controls would be fully
22 implemented between to 2019 and 2021. According to the
23 Regional Haze Rule, this is not allowed as it is past
24 the end of the current planning period.
25 Throughout the current planning period, Utah
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 22 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 has worked closely and in good faith with the EPA and
2 federal land managers to evaluate and implement
3 appropriate controls for improving visibility. Up to
4 the point of the current proposal, the EPA has indicated
5 to Utah that the alternative to BART approach and
6 analysis was acceptable.
7 The state will continue to evaluate the legal,
8 technical and procedural elements of EPA's proposal and
9 will follow up this testimony with detailed written
10 comments following the review and prior to the end of
11 the comment period.
12 Again, we appreciate the opportunity to
13 provide comments on EPA's proposals. We strongly urge
14 you to fully approve the Utah alternative to BART SIP as
15 demonstration as contained in first proposal and
16 withdraw from consideration the second proposal to
17 finalize the Federal Implementation Plan because it is
18 not necessary to achieve the requirements of the Clean
19 Air Act or the Regional Haze Rule. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Bird.
22 Okay. We're going to get started with the
23 rest of the commenters. Our first commenter will be
24 Bill Lawson from PacifiCorp Rocky Mountain Power. I
25 want folks to know that PacifiCorp combined their time
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 23 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of several people who wanted to comment. So their
2 comments will be a little bit longer, about five and a
3 half minutes. But most people will have three minutes.
4 Thank you, Mr. Lawson.
5 BILL LAWSON: Good afternoon. My name is
6 Bill, B-I-L-L, Lawson, L-A-W-S-O-N. I'm the director of
7 Rocky Mountain Power's Environmental Services Group,
8 which is responsible for administering environmental
9 rules and regulations at all of our thermal electric
10 generating facilities, including coal, natural gas, and
11 geothermal.
12 Rocky Mountain Power and its customers have a
13 vested interest in the outcome of this ruling, as it
14 will significantly impact the costs and operation of
15 Rocky Mountain Power's Hunter Unit 1, Hunter Unit 2,
16 Huntington Unit 1 and Huntington Unit 2 located in Emery
17 County, Utah. These impacts will not only be felt by
18 Rocky Mountain Power and our customers, but also by
19 Deseret Power Electric Cooperative, Utah Associated
20 Municipal Power Systems, and Utah Municipal Power Agency
21 due to their partial ownership in the Hunter plant.
22 I appreciate the opportunity I have today to
23 comment, and will follow up these comments with more
24 detailed written comments at a later date.
25 Rocky Mountain Power supports Option 1 of
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 24 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 EPA's proposed rule and believes that Option 2 is not
2 legally sustainable. The State of Utah completed a
3 rigorous public process to develop its Regional Haze SIP
4 in accordance with EPA's rules. Given the flexibility
5 provided states under those rules, for states to develop
6 and implement their own regional haze programs, the very
7 fact that EPA developed an analysis and rationale in
8 support of Utah's SIP is reason enough to accept it as
9 written.
10 However, in light of the EPA's request for
11 additional input, I provide the following. First,
12 following -- some imply that Option 1 is a do-nothing
13 plan. This is simply not true. Since 2007 Rocky
14 Mountain Power has taken the following actions as
15 required by Utah's Regional Haze SIP, which is reflected
16 as EPA's Option 1.
17 In 2007, we installed low NOx burners, a
18 sulfur dioxide scrubber and a bag house on Huntington
19 Unit 2. In 2008, we installed low NOx burners on Hunter
20 Unit 3. In 2011, we installed low NOx burners, sulfur
21 dioxide scrubber upgrades and a bag house on --
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: I'm sorry, Mr. Lawson,
23 I hate to interrupt. We need to have the door -- people
24 at the door not speaking so loudly we can't hear. Thank
25 you. Go ahead, Mr. Lawson.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 25 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 BILL LAWSON: In 2011, we installed low NOx
2 burners, sulfur dioxide scrubber upgrades and a bag
3 house on Huntington Unit 1.
4 In 2012, we installed low NOx burners,
5 scrubber upgrades and a bag house on Hunter Unit 2.
6 In 2014, we installed low NOx burners,
7 scrubber upgrades and a bag house on Hunter Unit 1. And
8 in 2015, we closed the Carbon plant and removed it from
9 service.
10 Those significant capital costs projects have
11 cost over half billion dollars, and their visibility
12 benefits started being realized back in 2007. EPA
13 itself has projected that the -- that these projects
14 that have been installed on these BART-eligible units
15 will reduce emissions of SO2 and nitrogen oxides by more
16 than 19,000 tons between 2012 and 2018.
17 And the remissions reductions associated with
18 the retirement of the Carbon plant, and the installation
19 of low NOx burners on Hunter Unit 3, will add an
20 additional 12,500 tons of annual emission reductions.
21 Moreover, the regional haze program is not
22 designated -- or is not designed to require that all
23 possible controls be installed immediately during the
24 first planning period. Rather, it's a long-term
25 program, and Rocky Mountain Power will be an active
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 26 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 participant in all phases of that program.
2 Second, Option 1 has been fully implemented in
3 accordance with the BART requirements. EPA's
4 coproposals do not represent an either/or alternative as
5 the proposed rule implies. If EPA chooses to impose
6 Option 2, it will require both Option 1 and Option 2.
7 This is not an allowable approach under the proposal to
8 implement one option or the other.
9 Third, Option 1 produces greater reasonable
10 progress at significantly lower costs than Option 2.
11 Under EPA's rules, the State of Utah was required to
12 compare its alternative measure SIP against the most
13 stringent NOx control technology and emission limits as
14 BART. Utah in fact did this and properly concluded that
15 Option 1 not only produces greater reasonable progress,
16 including lowering emissions and improved visibility,
17 but it does so at the total capital cost savings of over
18 700 million dollars to electric customers.
19 In other words, the alternative measure
20 proposed by the State achieves visibility improvements
21 than would be achieved by requiring selective catalytic
22 reduction at these four units. And it does so at a
23 significant lower cost.
24 The importance of this cannot be overstated.
25 This presents a classic win-win scenario. Visibility
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 27 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 proponents win because the alternative measure results
2 in greater reasonable progress, and electric customers
3 win because the greater -- that greater reasonable
4 progress is achieved at a much lower cost than
5 installing the additional controls.
6 In summary, EPA should approve Option 1
7 because one, it complies with EPA's Regional Haze Rules
8 as EPA itself has concluded. Two, it has already been
9 fully implemented. Three, it provides the required
10 visibility improvements; and four, it saves over 700
11 million dollars in total capital costs to electric
12 customers while still achieving greater reasonable
13 progress.
14 Rocky Mountain Power encourages the EPA to
15 approve Option 1 and accept Utah's Regional Haze
16 Implementation Plan as proposed. Thank you.
17 (Applause).
18 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. All right.
19 Now, next if we can have Karin Madsem. I am going to
20 have to ask folks -- there are a lot of people here, and
21 we want to make sure everyone who wants to be here can
22 be here. But I also want people to feel like they could
23 testify comfortably and not being intimidated. So if
24 there are any kinds of distractions, I am going to have
25 to ask people to leave. So please be respectful of all
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 28 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of those folks who are testifying today. Thank you.
2 KARIN MADSEM: Good afternoon. My name is
3 Karin Madsem, K-A-R-I-N, M-A-D-S-E-M.
4 I was born, raised and lived in Carbon County
5 for 30 years. I'm an environmental engineering
6 technician for four of our local coal mines. My
7 father's worked his entire career at the power plant,
8 and my husband is a coal miner.
9 Some of the people here today, who have not
10 spoken yet, are in support of over-regulating our
11 coal-fired power plant because you are under the
12 delusion they are causing ungodly amounts of pollution
13 and haze, threatening your skies, your lungs and your
14 livelihood.
15 Let me tell you something about livelihood.
16 Our livelihood, the livelihood of citizens of Carbon and
17 Emery counties, the citizens who took the entire day to
18 get here to attend this meeting that's being held in
19 Salt Lake City, 150 miles away from the communities this
20 rule would impact, communities who work hard every day
21 to provide you all with reliable and cost-effective
22 coal-fired power, the same coal-fired power that this
23 rule aims to destroy.
24 The regional -- I disapprove of the Regional
25 Haze Rule because it claims that these power plants are
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 29 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 producing enough pollution to impact Utah's air in the
2 national parks. This is ludicrous. This meeting was
3 held here today with the ulterior motive of wanting
4 people to believe the haze here in the city is the
5 result of these power plants, but simply is not.
6 Data found on EPA's own website clearly shows
7 the haze you all see when you walk outside this building
8 is caused by vehicles and not by power plants. It's
9 clearly not our power plants.
10 Feel free to visit any one of Utah's national
11 parks and see for yourself the beautiful sky, clean
12 fresh air and clear clean waters. On your way you might
13 get to drive through Carbon and Emery County and take a
14 big deep breath of some of the cleanest air you'll ever
15 come across.
16 Federal operations is becoming more of a
17 problem. The lies and half truths used to push the
18 anti-coal agenda is a disappointment. If not careful,
19 we'll be over-regulated into a corner we won't be able
20 to get out of. Thank you.
21 (Applause).
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Ms. Madsem.
23 Next if we could Phillip Jensen.
24 PHILLIP JENSEN: Good afternoon. My name is
25 Phillip Jensen. P-H-I-L-L-I-P, J-E-N-S-E-N. I'd like
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 30 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 to thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
2 I have lived in Carbon County, Utah for the
3 majority of my 45 years. I am an engineering tech
4 working with permitting and environmental quality issues
5 at Utah American Energy Incorporated. But I speak for
6 myself today.
7 In opening, I find it disgraceful that we are
8 having this hearing with such short public notice on a
9 weekday, and over 120 miles away from the very
10 communities that you are trying to decimate. Is that so
11 you don't have to face these people? You cowards.
12 I can only hope that this inquisition is
13 concerned with facts and not beliefs, feelings or
14 contrived data. Fact, the prevailing winds of the
15 United States are westerly, which generally blows from
16 the west to the east and northeast. Fact, these two
17 power plants, Huntington and Hunter, that we are
18 discussing, are located north and northwest of Utah's
19 national parks.
20 In order for the plant's emissions to reach
21 these parks, they would have to travel contrary to the
22 prevailing winds, which is physically not possible.
23 Therefore, these two power plants are not the likely
24 sources of the haze that we are discussing today, as the
25 EPA is stating they are. That source of haze is most
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 31 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 likely from outside the state of Utah.
2 According to the EPA's own website, 2001 --
3 2011 data is the latest I could find. I find that very
4 curious. But according to the EPA's website, southern
5 California vehicles alone produce over 10 times the
6 amount of the NOx emissions than these two power plants
7 currently do combined. And the prevailing winds are in
8 a direct line between southern California and Utah's
9 national parks. When you add Clark County, Nevada, that
10 equals 12 times the amount of NOx emissions.
11 Now, how can we prove that this comes from
12 southern California? Any time there's a storm in Los
13 Angeles, it always, almost always goes right through
14 southern Utah and our national parks. Furthermore, any
15 time there's a wildfire in California, Utah is assailed
16 by that smoke. And just for comparison purposes,
17 according to the EPA's website again, Salt Lake County
18 produces more NOx emissions from vehicles than these two
19 carbon -- than these two coal-fired power plants
20 currently do.
21 Furthermore, again according to EPA's own
22 website, vehicles produce over half of the smog-forming
23 VOCs, over half of the NOx emissions and about half of
24 all toxic air emissions. Therefore, coal is not the end
25 all boogie man that so many people portray it to be.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 32 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 The EPA really needs to look at the reality of
2 pollutants and their sources and stop trying to destroy
3 these industries. Stop trying to destroy whole
4 communities and stop trying to destroy the people's
5 lives, all for this holier than thou crusade of yours.
6 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Mr. Jensen, your time
7 is up.
8 PHILLIP JENSEN: Two more things. This is
9 intended for political agenda only. Stop it and leave
10 the good, hard working people of eastern Utah alone.
11 Thank you.
12 (Applause).
13 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next if we
14 can have John Prehn. Sorry if I am not saying that
15 right.
16 JOHN PREHN: My name is John Prehn, P-R-E-H-N.
17 And I am here to support Heal Utah, the Utah Physicians
18 For a Healthy Environment and the Sierra Club.
19 I support the Clean Parks Plan to
20 substantially clean up some of the pollution -- some of
21 the pollution generated by coal-burning power plants.
22 Utah is a natural jewel. Globally unique. It is being
23 degraded by numerous irresponsible industry actions, one
24 of which is burning coal without emission controls.
25 I call on the EPA to impose stricter controls,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 33 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 comparable to those enforced in neighboring western
2 states, since our state officials are unwilling to do
3 so.
4 We have learned two things in recent years at
5 least. We have enough multi billionaires like Warren
6 Buffet. They can afford to clean up their acts. Two,
7 we must stop burning coal to produce electricity. Coal
8 is a dirty, lethal business from its mining to the
9 exhaustion of poisonous chemicals into the atmosphere
10 during burning. Until we can transition away from coal,
11 we should at least get relatively clean coal, scrubbed
12 of some of these chemicals as promised by promoters of
13 coal for years now.
14 This is not a privileged, optional or cosmetic
15 issue. Our environment is in crisis. Utah can no
16 longer be considered the Wild West where anything goes.
17 Thank you.
18 (Applause).
19 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Prehn.
20 Next, if we could have Dave Levanger.
21 DAVE LEVANGER: Hello. My name is Dave
22 Levanger, L-E-V-A-N-G-E-R. I'm a director of planning
23 for Carbon County, Utah and wish to speak today in
24 support of the state's implementation plan for regional
25 haze; in other words Option 1, in our national parks and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 34 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 echo previous comments.
2 My understanding is that by being prudent and
3 responsible in their planning, along with the
4 cooperation of PacifiCorp, I am talking about the state
5 of Utah, with their planning, and by spending over 500
6 million dollars at five power generating stations in our
7 area, we have achieved a goal set for reduction of
8 nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter in
9 our atmosphere.
10 I further understand that by taking the
11 approach that has been taken by the state, in the
12 electrical generating industry in eastern Utah, our
13 electrical power rate payers have saved around 700
14 million dollars or will save that if they are not forced
15 to do Option 2.
16 This amounts to economic justice for all of
17 our citizens and especially for the poor, who must pay
18 for electricity as well.
19 I also understand that coal provides nearly 50
20 percent of the electrical energy generated in America
21 and around 80 percent here in Utah. Our consumers and
22 businesses in Utah deserve the lowest cost power they
23 can obtain. That keeps us all working.
24 I maintain that in order to comply with the
25 spirit of our system of laws, the EPA should recognize
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 35 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 the real progress that has been made through the
2 cooperation of PacifiCorp, the Rocky Mountain Power in
3 retrofitting the Hunter plants 1, 2, and 3, and
4 Huntington plants 1 and 2.
5 I would also add that we in Carbon County feel
6 that we have already paid the price of the closure of
7 the Carbon plants 1 and 2 at Castle Gate which added to
8 the reduction of the air pollutants. We see no reason
9 for EPA to not accept the achievements already made and
10 stay the course with the Utah plan.
11 While we can all see that wind and solar,
12 along with nuclear energy, will be a part of the future
13 of our energy, our best course of action now is to
14 support the compliant generation of electricity in Emery
15 County. And if you don't believe it's nice and clear
16 down there, come on down and leave some of your money in
17 Carbon on the way.
18 (Applause).
19 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next if we
20 can have Bill King.
21 BILL KING: My name is Bill King. B-I-L-L,
22 K-I-N-G. I am a civil engineer for Canyon Fuel Company.
23 I want to discuss a little bit about the options that
24 the EPA has today.
25 Air pollution has become a large challenge
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 36 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 faced by the world today, and saving the planet has
2 become a household term. You may believe everything you
3 hear on the subject is true, or you may have your
4 doubts. In both cases we are victimized by countless
5 myths.
6 No doubt, yes, air pollution exists, and yes,
7 we do need to do something about it. Therefore, are we
8 truly working together to clean Utah's regional haze or
9 are we just trying to hinder and shut down industry?
10 I have read the reports from EPA concerning
11 Utah's Regional Haze State Implementation Plan or SIP
12 with respect to the Clean Air Act, and I want to share
13 the following.
14 EPA's evaluation and proposal -- proposed
15 approval of Utah's Regional Haze State Implementation
16 Plan states: We propose to concur with Utah's findings
17 that the BART alternative will achieve greater SO2 and
18 PM10 emission reductions and greater aggregate emission
19 reductions of all pollutants. We propose to concur with
20 Utah's findings that SO2 emission reductions should
21 provide visibility benefits in all seasons and that
22 sulfate is the largest contributor to visibility
23 impairment at the class -- at the affected Class 1
24 areas.
25 Furthermore, we propose to find these
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 37 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 observations suggest that the BART alternative is likely
2 to achieve greater reasonable progress, which that is
3 what we are after. This importance cannot be
4 overstated. In other words, the alternate measures in
5 the Utah Regional Haze State Implementation Plan
6 achieves better visibility and improvements than will be
7 achieved by the normal BART plan.
8 This presents, as Rocky Mountain Power, said a
9 win-win scenario, a win for environment and a win for
10 the people for our economy, for our hard-working workers
11 through Carbon and through Salt Lake and Utah. Like we
12 said, 80 percent of Utah's power comes from coal. It
13 will directly affect everyone.
14 Avoiding the unnecessary major incremental
15 compliance expenditures under the EPA's second proposal
16 option for NOx emissions, which will not produce
17 meaningful visibility improvements above those already
18 achieved, is in the best interests of Utah and the
19 stakeholders.
20 Again, are we truly trying to clean the air or
21 are we just trying cripple to industry, jobs and our way
22 of life? We need to approve Utah's current Regional
23 Haze Implementation Plan. Thank you.
24 (Applause).
25 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 38 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Robbie Gray.
2 ROBBIE GRAY: Name's Robbie Gray.
3 R-O-B-B-I-E, G-R-A-Y. I live in Helper, Utah. Ladies
4 and gentlemen, thank you for giving me the opportunity
5 to speak today. I have worked in the energy industry
6 all my adult life. From the oil and gas fields in the
7 Uintah Basin, to coal production in Carbon County.
8 This work has provided well paying jobs in our
9 area, with health and retirement benefits that are fast
10 becoming lost in the rest of the state. The coal we
11 produce here in our own state keeps electricity rates
12 among the lowest in the nation. Even Governor Herbert
13 last week said Utah has one of the fastest growing job
14 markets in the nation.
15 The state of Utah has very capable people that
16 introduced the SIP plan to balance air quality with
17 consumer rates and cost to Rocky Mountain Power.
18 I live in Helper, Utah where the Castle Gate
19 Power Plant was shut down last year. It is very
20 apparent what this has done to our local economy. The
21 job loss to local vendors, to highly skilled workers
22 that rebuild these plants, welders, pipe fitters,
23 electrical workers, the list is long. My wife is a
24 manager for two local convenience stores in Helper, and
25 she tells of the immediate effect this plant closing has
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 39 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 done to our local economy.
2 Putting unreasonable and unobtainable cost
3 restrictions on these power plants with little or no
4 gain in air quality is not in the best interest for the
5 state of Utah. With overreaching current EPA plans on
6 air quality, we will see adverse growth and the fallout
7 that will surely come with the EPA's plan. We will see
8 higher unemployment. We will see lower quality of life.
9 We will see higher crime rates. Along with that comes
10 higher drug use. These are some of the things that we
11 have to look at.
12 What does this have to do with the state's SIP
13 plan? Let Utah take care of this with their very
14 capable division of air quality. We can and will solve
15 these issues without the federal EPA involvement. Thank
16 you for listening. Thank you for this opportunity.
17 (Applause).
18 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Gray.
19 Next, if we can have Marry McGann.
20 MARRY McGANN: My name is Marry McGann.
21 M-A-R-R-Y, M-C capital G-A-N-N. I live in Moab, Utah
22 which is located in Grand County. I am an elected
23 member of the Grand County Council. Today I am speaking
24 to you as a citizen, not as a council representative. I
25 appreciate this opportunity to address the EPA on this
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 40 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 important issue.
2 Should the state of Utah be required to use
3 the Clean Parks Plan, which implements the best possible
4 technology for controlling nitrogen oxide emissions at
5 the Hunter and Huntington coal power plants? The Clean
6 Park Plan would reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxide
7 by two thirds. Or should Utah be allowed to continue
8 letting these coal power plants release large quantities
9 of nitrogen oxide into the air?
10 For eight years in a row, Utah takes the top
11 ranking for the best economic outlook in the nation. A
12 state with this type of economic outlook does not need
13 nor deserve a pass on using the best technology
14 available for controlling nitrogen oxide emission.
15 The state of Utah has the ability to support
16 the Hunter and Huntington power plants financially so
17 that the plants can afford to implement the best
18 technology possible. Utah can afford this, and its
19 citizen and visitors deserve the best quality air
20 protection possible.
21 The EPA site states current scientific
22 evidence links short-term nitrogen oxide exposure with
23 adverse respiratory effects. It would be reckless of
24 the EPA to give a state that can well afford the extra
25 cost of installing the best available technology a pass
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 41 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 on not using that technology.
2 As I stated earlier, I live in Moab, Utah,
3 which is located next to two magnificent national parks,
4 Arches and Canyonlands, and an amazing state park, Dead
5 Horse Point. The Hunter and Huntington coal power
6 plants contribute to the increased haze in these
7 remarkable parks. The recreational value of Grand
8 County's land contributes to the state -- strength of
9 Utah's economic outlook. This resource must be
10 protected.
11 The state of Utah can help these plants. They
12 do not have to carry the burden themselves. We can
13 protect the jobs and the environment. We do not need to
14 choose.
15 Please protect Utah's health, environment and
16 tourist industry. Require Utah to implement the Clean
17 Park Plan. Thank you very much.
18 (Applause).
19 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Miss
20 McGann. Next, Rick Fredrickson.
21 RICK FREDRICKSON: My name is Rick
22 Fredrickson. R-I-C-K, F-R-E-D-R-I-C-K-S-O-N. I want to
23 first thanks for the -- giving me a few minutes of your
24 time to speak in behalf of myself and some of my fellow
25 coworkers. After reading about this hearing and I felt
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 42 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 it was important for me to stand here and speak on the
2 issue.
3 You look at what the PacifiCorp has already
4 done. They met or exceeded the expectations for this
5 issue by the EPA on their own standard. Now EPA wants
6 more. In whose interest? Is that in the public's
7 interest or in the government's interest? I feel the
8 U.S. government isn't for the general population any
9 more. It's obvious if you watch the debates that are
10 going on now for the presidential race.
11 I was in city council for two four-year terms
12 in Moroni. As a council, we tried to do what was best
13 for the people of our community, not for us
14 individually. We don't see this in the U.S. government
15 today. So what is best for our people?
16 Sanpete is already the lowest income per
17 capita in the state of Utah. By doing what EPA wants
18 strategically, closing our coal mines, it would
19 devastate our communities in many ways economically.
20 Hundreds or thousands of jobs directly or indirectly
21 would be impacted by this.
22 Our local stores would suffer or close. The
23 banking institutes would be hit with foreclosures,
24 bankruptcy, defaults on loans. Unemployment would go
25 sky high. Crime goes up with unemployment. So does
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 43 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 drug usage and alcoholism. It would put only -- it
2 would not -- it would put not only Sanpete but Carbon,
3 Emery and other counties in a financial whirlwind.
4 Price would become a ghost town.
5 I have lived in Sanpete 40 of my 54 years. I
6 choose to live here because it is a great place to raise
7 a family. I have spent a lot of time in our state's
8 national parks in the mountains and valleys surrounding
9 us. The only place I have personally witnessed this
10 so-called haze is in Utah and Salt Lake counties farther
11 north.
12 This hearing does not address the real issue
13 of haze. We as people, not -- need to stand up and do
14 our part and let the U.S. government -- instead of
15 letting the U.S. government take over. Our state has
16 done wonders to try to help and cooperate with the U.S.
17 government, and we have to choose this today if we can
18 afford -- if this kind of stuff keeps going on, we are
19 going to have to choose whether we have electricity or
20 whether we have food on our tables.
21 In short, I ask that the EPA does what's right
22 for Utah. Let the state make its own rules with your
23 recommendations. We need to back PacifiCorp for what
24 they have done. They have put a lot of effort into
25 following your own rules to stop this so-called haze.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 44 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Instead of punishing all of us for the EPA's
2 hidden interest to close all the coal mines down, we
3 need to look hard and as a state make these decisions on
4 our own and not let them come from the nation's capital.
5 In close, I'd just like to say thanks for the
6 time and do the right thing.
7 (Applause).
8 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
9 Mr. Fredrickson. Next, Caroline, I'm sorry, I'm having
10 a hard time reading your last name, Gleith.
11 CAROLINE GLEITH: Gleith.
12 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Sorry about that.
13 MS. GLEITH: Thank you. Hello. My name is
14 Caroline Gleith. That's C-A-R-O-L-I-N-E. Last name, G
15 as in George, L-E-I-T-H. I am a professional skier and
16 outdoor adventurer based here in Utah. I travel all
17 around the world to pursue human-powered outdoor
18 recreation. When I meet people and tell them where I am
19 from, I'm tired of having to defend my decision to call
20 Utah home.
21 It seems the world knows two different Utahs,
22 the Utah that is the most beautiful place, and the Utah
23 that is known for its outdated energy portfolio, dirty
24 air and exploitation of natural resources.
25 I love to rock climb, hike, and camp and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 45 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 recreate in Utah's national parks. I have seen the haze
2 generated from coal-burning power plants over Arches
3 National Park, obstructing the scenic views of the
4 surrounding red rock. The haze is not only dampening
5 people's respect for Utah and their travel plans here,
6 it's endangering our health.
7 We need to clean up the air to keep our
8 tourism and outdoor industries vibrantly growing.
9 Utah's outdoor recreation industry generates 12.2
10 billion dollars annually. Coal plants in Colorado,
11 Arizona and New Mexico have already installed these
12 controls.
13 When people are deciding where to go on
14 vacation, the reputation of a state matters. The
15 outdoor consumer is savvy and well educated. They want
16 to invest in places and companies that care about the
17 health of people and the environment.
18 I choose to make Utah my home, and I consider
19 myself an ambassador to the state. It's important to me
20 to make sure our tourist economy stays vibrant and that
21 Utah air stays clean so our national parks remain
22 iconic.
23 I urge the EPA to order Utah's coal power
24 plants to install state-of-the-art pollution control
25 technologies and to choose the plan that will do the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 46 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 most to clean up our air and protect the Utah that I
2 love and enjoy. Thank you very much.
3 (Applause).
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, Brody Leven.
5 BRODY LEVEN: Hi. I'm Brody Leven. That's
6 B-R-O-D-Y, L-E-V-E-N.com is my website, if you're
7 interested. You know what, I spend a lot of time
8 outside because as a professional adventurer,
9 professional skier, that is my office. Not this. I
10 should be out there today.
11 But that's new. Until recently my office was,
12 like many other people's, behind a computer. And it
13 doesn't matter if I am going outside for work or for
14 pleasure, nothing has changed insofar as I moved to Utah
15 nine years ago because of the natural environment, not
16 for a job.
17 My friends and I are the people that this is
18 truly hitting. Because our livelihoods, like some of
19 the other peoples, depend on clean, clear air and
20 abundant recreational tourism. But we are also the
21 people making Utah home throughout the state. We are
22 taxpayers and homeowners. We're young entrepreneurs.
23 We patronize your businesses. We shop locally. We
24 graduate from Utah colleges with Utah debt in Utah
25 banks.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 47 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 We also make annual pilgrimages to EPA and to
2 the White House to explain the vital importance and
3 economic viability of clean clear air.
4 The nature of my work allows me to live
5 anywhere in the world, but I have chosen to make my home
6 here in Utah, like everyone else in this room. But this
7 luxury is in jeopardy. This isn't about another powder
8 day of skiing or another fun rock climb.
9 It's about the tourism-choked economy that so
10 many of us live in being drained of its vitality, about
11 the inexplicable freedom of exploring natural national
12 parks being ripped from our children by unwanted and
13 unhealthy haze. And without adequately stringent
14 attention and regulation on our primitive coal-fired
15 power plants, we, and the EPA, are inviting a ruined
16 right to co-exist with nature, and we have only
17 ourselves to blame.
18 Personally, I am embarrassed by a need to be
19 here today. But it exists. I am ashamed that the state
20 that I have chosen to adopt as my home, like everyone
21 else in this room, has become the laughing stock of the
22 tourism, recreation and outdoor community.
23 I consistently speak to national,
24 international media. Let me repeat that. I
25 consistently speak to national and international media
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 48 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 about living in Utah. And my decision to live here is
2 constantly being questioned. We are ambassadors for the
3 state. What happens when people stop coming to Utah and
4 its threatened public lands because of our inability and
5 indifference?
6 The haze has dampened the public's respect for
7 Utah and the tourism dollars that they bring here. The
8 youth cares. Let's fix it now. Let's fix it before
9 it's too late.
10 Because I don't know if you guys realize how
11 our generation and our jobs work, but this video that
12 Caroline's taking will be online in the next five
13 minutes, and there will be hundreds of thousands of
14 people, primarily tourists, watching this video from
15 around the world as they consider their choice of where
16 to move or visit.
17 Let's stop the embarrassment. Let's stop the
18 economic suffering. There's a solution that we can all
19 agree on. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, Sarah Fields.
22 SARAH FIELDS: My name is Sarah Fields.
23 S-A-R-A-H, F, as in Frank, I-E-L-D-S. Thank you for the
24 opportunity to speak, though I do wish that the
25 department division of air quality had made a better
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 49 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 effort to work with the EPA to get a better venue where
2 there would have been seats for everyone and no
3 distracting noise in the hall.
4 I live in southeast Utah. I live in Moab. I
5 am a PacifiCorp paying customer. I support Option 2. I
6 believe, as some other speakers have expressed, that we
7 should have the maximum amount of pollution controls in
8 the coal-fired power plants in Utah. And there are a
9 number of reasons for that.
10 There's the reason for health, and also
11 there's a reason of cumulative impacts. Earlier this
12 year -- well, in late last year, I had the need to drive
13 up to Price to deliver some documents, and the pollution
14 in Green River and the pollution in Price was very high.
15 And that was probably because of the fires in other
16 states.
17 So when you are looking at compliance with
18 Utah at a certain level, when there is no -- a lot of
19 pollution isn't coming from other areas, you are not
20 really dealing with what often is happening throughout
21 the year because of winds, because of fires, because of
22 other sources of pollution.
23 So if we can use our laws, our regulatory
24 authority to bring those pollution levels as -- down,
25 then it means when we do have fires, that we do have
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 50 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 uncontrolled sources of pollution, it won't be as
2 hazardous.
3 Also, a few -- I believe and agree with one of
4 the speakers that you should have had hearings in
5 southeast Utah, in Carbon County, in Orem, in Utah
6 County. Because whatever decisions that you are going
7 to make primarily impacts the people in that area.
8 Something else. Oh, as far as jobs, I don't
9 think this is an anti-coal miner issue. PacifiCorp is a
10 very well-to-do corporation. It has a lot of money.
11 And I am sure that they have the funds available to put
12 in pollution -- additional pollution control.
13 (Applause).
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Miss
15 Fields. Next. If we can have Jake Mellor, Mellon?
16 JAKE MELLOR: It's Jake Mellor, M-E-L-L-O-R.
17 I have the fortunate opportunity or curse to be the
18 Carbon County commissioner. I don't -- I say a curse in
19 congeniality, because honestly, we do live in Paradise
20 down there. I, in good favor, tell everybody come on
21 down to Paradise, Price and we'll show you what clean
22 air really looks like.
23 Honestly, it is interesting and it is sad that
24 we have to on a weekday leave our work and leave our
25 area to come and defend our livelihood. And to come and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 51 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 express to you the importance of where we are.
2 It would be much more self-explanatory if you
3 would just visit with us the areas that are affected by
4 these rulings, and as many have already, invite you to
5 come to our place where we call home to, where we call
6 paradise and see what tourism and see what amazing
7 things we're able to do all together at one time.
8 There's been several comments made, several
9 good points. I'd like to just talk about cooperation.
10 I'd like to talk about redundancy. I'd like to talk
11 about the EPA's role, and I'd like to talk about what we
12 do in Carbon and Emery and eastern Utah.
13 First of all, jobs, economy, clear skies,
14 clean air, we have all of that where we're at. The
15 State of Utah, Bryce Bird, air quality division
16 director, he is doing what you proposed to do in a much
17 more efficient way.
18 And I say that because he's here with boots on
19 the ground. It is much easier for him, and much more
20 effective for him as proven to our history and the
21 results that we've already received, not through models,
22 but through actual monitored data, what we are able to
23 do as far as emission controls.
24 And if you are looking for an emission
25 culprit, a cause for emissions, if you wanted to really
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 52 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 attack what is polluting our air or the main source, it
2 might kill tourism, but it's our airports. More so than
3 any refinery. More so than any emissions from any
4 vehicle on any freeway. It's the Salt Lake
5 International Airport. Colorado, I believe, relocated
6 their airport for similar reasons.
7 Now, I am not here to tell you how to do your
8 jobs. I believe the reason and purpose for why the EPA
9 was created when it was created, though I fear that the
10 pendulum has swung to the other extreme, and that there
11 is an overstep.
12 We are agencies funded by government, by
13 taxpayer money, and I feel that you are trying to
14 reproduce something that is already working. The State
15 of Utah has an air quality control division that is
16 working, and for the EPA to step in and implement
17 something completely different without I feel fully
18 looking at what has been done and what is being done, is
19 unjust and unresponsible for our taxpayer money.
20 There is a little bit of delusion as far as
21 what is clean air, where is clean air. I say that
22 because there's been a lot of comments, a lot of
23 emotions, a lot of passion. But I'm a person who likes
24 to dwell on the facts.
25 Part of the plan has been mentioned in the FIP
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 53 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 plan to replace the Utah SIP is not necessarily legally
2 sustainable, and perhaps through the models will not
3 actually create the reality proposed. We have monitored
4 data that shows what can be done through the current
5 efforts and from actual data gathered, we can create
6 better models.
7 I also fear that through the overreach that
8 you are working towards by implementing this plan that
9 was not fully reviewed or even provided on a timely
10 basis to the state air quality division, that that's
11 going to further the efforts of the congressional
12 oversight committee led by Chaffetz to continually look
13 at defunding part of the EPA.
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Mr. Mellor, your time
15 is up.
16 JAKE MELLOR: I appreciate this process. I
17 appreciate you being here. I appreciate the opportunity
18 to speak. I would just ask that we would cooperate and
19 that we would look at what's currently being done, not
20 seek to be redundant but seek to cooperate.
21 (Applause).
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
23 we could have Frank Nederhand.
24 FRANK NEDERHAND: Hi. Thank you very much for
25 letting me come here to speak today. My name is Frank
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 54 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 A. Nederhand. Spelled F-R-A-N-K, Nederhand, spelled
2 N-E-D-E-R-H-A-N-D. I actually live in Wasatch Front,
3 and I do have a prepared statement, but I'm going to
4 deviate somewhat from that to save time for other people
5 to speak.
6 I am -- would like to go on the record, public
7 record, supporting EPA's move to disapprove Utah's SIP.
8 And I am sorry, Administrator Bird, but I also encourage
9 EPA to go much further than just this to look closer
10 than just the regional haze issue and consider taking
11 Utah's right to regulate air quality on behalf of the
12 citizens of Utah away. Here are a couple of points why.
13 Utah is the only state that I am aware of that
14 allows some of its largest emitters of pollutants to
15 operate without a Title 5 permit. And for those that
16 don't know, that is operating permit program that
17 Congress requires every state to have, and they do not
18 have Title 5 permits. They are not under a Title 5
19 permit because it's not available for the public to see
20 it on their web page.
21 The state I work with, Georgia, has their web
22 page up 15 years ago and never misses having all their
23 Title 5 permits on that. It is easy technology, and the
24 state of Utah is not doing their job. How can we expect
25 them -- expect them to do the right by regional haze?
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 55 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Second of all, there is a big power plant that
2 was built not far from where I live in Utah Valley.
3 This was built by the same company that operates
4 Huntington and Hunter. Instead of replacing those
5 plants with that plant, the state-of-the-art plant, and
6 cleaning the air up here both in the Wasatch Front and
7 in the Emery and Carbon counties, they built it here
8 instead. The state knows that that is the largest
9 single emitter of PM2.5 there is, and we are in a
10 nonattainment area here. So how can we trust the state
11 of Utah?
12 That's another reason why I want them to move,
13 one of the things that's never discussed about poor
14 Castleton. Now, I know the people there are probably
15 used to it, but how would Salt Lake like 200 plus trucks
16 a day bringing coal through Main Street, every day? I
17 don't think they would appreciate that.
18 One last thing I'd like to say since I only
19 have 30 seconds. I want to thank the coal miners and
20 other people that came up from Carbon and Emery
21 counties. I want to assure you that the NOx controls
22 required by EPA are not going to make you lose jobs. I
23 work with the largest coal plant in the United States,
24 and they have these controls, and I speak from
25 experience. It did not -- it is not a problem, and you
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 56 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 can do it here too. Thank you again and good luck.
2 (Applause).
3 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
4 Mr. Nederhand. Next, if we can have Gary Cox.
5 GARY COX: My name is Gary Cox. G-A-R-Y,
6 C-O-X. I'm the senior system business manager for IBEW
7 Local 57. Local 57 represents the bargaining unit
8 employees of Rocky Mountain Power in Utah, Idaho and
9 Wyoming, at least the southwest portion of Wyoming. We
10 represent approximately 250 workers that would be
11 impacted by these regulations if they are imposed. I
12 appreciate this opportunity to express my concerns on
13 behalf of our membership.
14 Prior to accepting employment with Local 57, I
15 was an employee of PacifiCorp and its predecessors for
16 approximately 25 years. The majority of my career with
17 PacifiCorp was spent as an instrument and control
18 technician at the Naughton plant which is located near
19 Kemmerer, Wyoming.
20 I had the unique opportunity to be involved
21 with multiple projects related to environmental
22 compliance with both state and national air quality
23 regulations. I was the Naughton plant lead technician
24 assigned to the installation and maintenance of new CMs,
25 and other equipment associated with Part 75 regulation.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 57 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 The regulation required the company to continuously
2 monitor, measure and report SO2, NOx, CO, O2, opacity
3 and total air flow.
4 In recent years the company has been required
5 to install monitors that measure mercury emissions as
6 well, even though they are not measurable. Coal
7 emissions across the country have been reduced by 80
8 percent since 1980.
9 I was also asked to maintain Method 9
10 certification, which is an alternate method to evaluate
11 the amount of opacity or particulate matter that is
12 being emitted by a source.
13 In 2013, I was asked to attend a meeting to
14 discuss the closure of PacifiCorp's Carbon plant. The
15 reasons given for closing the facility were to meet the
16 new MATS and regional haze requirements. While this
17 meeting was being conducted, several trains loaded with
18 coal were headed to foreign destinations. The Carbon
19 plant has ceased operations as agreed in the state plan.
20 The next attack of course will be to stop the trains.
21 I am an avid outdoorsman who wants clean air
22 as much as anyone else. My wife and I average 7500
23 miles a year on a motorcycle, and I have visited 18
24 national parks over the last four years, many of them
25 multiple times. We have witnessed firsthand the impacts
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 58 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of haze. Ironically, some of the worst haze witnessed
2 was on a cruise ship in Glacier Bay, Alaska, where there
3 were obviously no U.S. coal-generating stations that
4 could contribute.
5 The vast majority of regional haze is linked
6 to wildfires and other sources that are beyond the scope
7 of and control of both the state and EPA regulators.
8 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Mr. Cox, your time is
9 up.
10 GARY COX: One more thing. I find it very
11 difficult to believe that we should switch to more
12 expensive energy and burden ourselves with wind and
13 solar which costs many times more. Thank you.
14 (Applause).
15 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
16 we can have Brent Donohue.
17 BRENT DONOHUE: Hi. My name is Brent Donohue.
18 B-R-E-N-T, D-O-N-O-H-U-E. Good afternoon. I come
19 before you today not to give scientific data or not to
20 spread a new theory about cleaning the air. I come in
21 front of you today because I care about Utah and air
22 quality as much as any resident in the state.
23 I call for you to reconsider and uphold the
24 State Implementation Plan in its entirety. The state's
25 plan allows responsible economic development and takes
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 59 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 air quality into account.
2 The state's plan is very practical and is a
3 strong plan for reducing haze from industrial sources.
4 The state's plan is well reasoned. It will improve the
5 visibility and air quality. It moves in the right
6 direction. With it there will be incremental change for
7 better air balance, with real world economic factors.
8 Citizens will see and will feel a difference
9 if the state's plan is adopted in its entirety. Thank
10 you.
11 (Applause).
12 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
13 Mr. Donohue. James Newman.
14 JAMES NEWMAN: Thank you. James Newman,
15 N-E-W-M-A-N. I'm a mining engineer. I was actually
16 born and raised right here in smog Salt Lake County and
17 moved down to clean air Carbon. I make that comment
18 because I have really a lot of trouble with my breathing
19 sometimes. Only when I visit up in here, where we do
20 have the smog problem.
21 I mean we're all for fresh air. We all want
22 good, clean air. I don't know anyone who wants bad air.
23 And the major problem with the haze is transportation,
24 the cars.
25 The EPA in their report, unlike the state who
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 60 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 focused on many aspects, focused only on the power
2 plants. Using only data when we have the three running
3 in, sorry -- the Carbon when we had Carbon running. But
4 has not supplied any data since the shutdown of that
5 plant.
6 Instead of focussing on the issues, they have
7 gone on to a political point, that it must be the coal
8 plants, even though they are not in the correct wind
9 patterns for the very national parks that we are saying
10 we are trying to protect.
11 But Los Angeles, which is in an attainment
12 area is, and we get a lot of their junk. But instead of
13 looking at that, they battle the power plants because it
14 must be the power plants. It can't be anything but the
15 power plants, even though they are outside of the area,
16 outside of the wind patterns.
17 And they did some good modeling, but
18 arbitrarily skipped on the connection points and just
19 automatically said, hey, if we take this much from the
20 power plants, this is going to reduce the amount in the
21 national parks. Gave no connection on how they were
22 doing that in their report.
23 And then, as part of the report, they are
24 required to talk about the economy, and the different
25 areas. That's 13 CFR 121.2012. Now, they spent over a
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 61 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 paragraph defining what that is and less than a
2 paragraph saying that it would have no economic. Gave
3 no fact, no reason, nothing. There was no data given at
4 all. Merely a blanket statement saying, yes, we're sure
5 it won't affect the economy in the area at all.
6 Meanwhile, in just the last year, we have had
7 the extreme buffer rule. We have had the freeze on all
8 new coal leases. We have the attempt also to increase
9 royalty rates on new leases, all these things happening
10 at the same time the last year so that the EPA can
11 follow their edict from Joe Biden that you can build a
12 power plant but we'll shut it down.
13 We are ignoring what the real problem is here.
14 And we are just focussing on the power plants because
15 they are the political issue.
16 I think what Utah has done is great. They
17 have cleaned. They have followed the EPA's guidelines,
18 but never will they reach it until they have shut us all
19 down. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Newman.
22 Next, if we can have Mark Hillson, Hallson.
23 MARK HEILESON: Thank you for this opportunity
24 to speak. My name is Mark Heileson. I do work for the
25 Sierra Club. However, I am speaking on behalf of myself
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 62 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 today.
2 I am a six generation pioneer to this state.
3 My family came over in 1864 with the Mormon migration,
4 and we settled in Sevier County where some of my family
5 still resides today. I, however, grew up in Provo,
6 Utah, where I developed a strong passion for exploring
7 the red rock country of the state. And by far the crown
8 jewels are the vistas. The most incredible views are
9 those found in our national parks.
10 Unfortunately, over time growing up, I have
11 noticed some days you just can't see as well. You can't
12 see as far. Things are not as sharp. Where I first
13 noticed that was on the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef
14 National Park and some of the ridges around the San
15 Rafael Swell.
16 And as the haze got worse, you could start to
17 see it on the rims around Moab above Canyonlands. And
18 if you get up in the Mahos outside of Monticello, Utah,
19 above the Needles District of Canyonlands, sometimes you
20 can really see how the haze is set in. And where it
21 comes from is a very obvious compass arrow right back to
22 the Highway 10 corridor where the power plants are.
23 The national parks really are a financial
24 backbone of our state, especially for rural economies.
25 That's not necessarily my words. Governor Herbert
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 63 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 explained that a couple years ago, when they had the
2 government shutdown and the state actually pumped in
3 taxpayer money from the State of Utah to open up the
4 parks in cooperation with the federal government to keep
5 that money from recreation flowing.
6 And there was a lot of case being made if
7 those parks are closed, even for a short time, the
8 economies of that corner of the state would crash. And
9 that's a real hand tip. The State knows how important
10 these parks are to our economy, and it should be all the
11 reason why we don't take any chances with the views and
12 how much they mean to our economy. That should be
13 paramount that they should be protected and that's all
14 we're asking for today.
15 I wasn't aware that this was a hearing about
16 closing coal mines or power plants. This is about
17 cleaning up, using the best available technology. And
18 this is why I believe that the SCR technology is best.
19 I don't think that's going to cost jobs. I think it's
20 going to create them. Let's get the hard working people
21 of Emery and Carbon County to put the scrubbers in those
22 tanks and maintain them. This is what we're asking for
23 today.
24 Our parks are our heritage. It's just like --
25 people who love them come to see. People travel for
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 64 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 miles, sometimes from other countries to see our
2 national parks, and they will only come if they could
3 see them. And that's what we should be talking about
4 today.
5 And you know, let's face it, PacifiCorp,
6 Warren Buffet, these are pretty well healed companies
7 and CEOs. They can afford that technology, and they
8 should hire people locally to put those in and get them
9 this work. And again, thank you for your time.
10 (Applause).
11 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
12 we can, Jason Marietti.
13 JASON MARIETTI: Right on, cool, thank you.
14 Yes. My name's Jason Marietti. J-A-S-O-N,
15 M-A-R-I-E-T-T-I. Anyway, I am not going to go with the
16 facts. I'm just going to tell you, I have lived in
17 Price basically my whole life, been to all these parks.
18 The only time you ever see haze is on a fiery day where
19 there's a fire in California or wherever.
20 And all I can tell you is, I am a coal miner,
21 proud to be a coal miner. And if we're so worried about
22 our environment, why don't we attack issues that are
23 really there? I agree with all these guys saying
24 transportation is our biggest issue. So why don't we
25 fix that? Because we're not going to do any better on
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 65 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 our power plant.
2 You have heard, I have read four different
3 things that says four different things. Who's got the
4 facts? Show us the facts. Give them to us. That's all
5 I got. Thanks.
6 (Applause).
7 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Is it Fred
8 Marietta?
9 FRED MARIETTI: Hey, right on. My name is
10 Fred Marietti. I was MSHA coal mine inspector and miner
11 for 36 years. I've lived in Carbon County most of my
12 life. I don't have all these facts and figures on
13 tests, how they test for NO2 and all them things. But I
14 have lived down there, and I am a sky watcher. And I
15 live in Emery County. I lived in Carbon County.
16 And I agree with Mr. Lawson when he says seven
17 years ago the plants have made moves to clean up their
18 air through scrubbers and stuff. And I used to look
19 down there by Hunter power plant and them, and I used to
20 see some nitrous oxides floating. But they are floating
21 kind of northwest. I don't know that they go over Moab
22 that much.
23 But anyway, it's just air stream pattern, and
24 all I can say is since '07, I'd say it is, I've looked
25 down there many days, and the air is clear. I see some
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 66 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 steam generated. And you see that in there. But I
2 don't see the nitrous oxides layers floating over the
3 country any more.
4 And I think they have made great progress in
5 improving what they are doing, and I think from what
6 Mr. Lawson said that they are doing more improvements
7 and going to increase the No. 3 unit and whatever.
8 And I have been to the parks in different
9 places. And yeah, you have hazy days. That's just in
10 the climate. But you know, are you going to -- what you
11 going to attribute it to? The one guy there says they
12 directly come down from Highway 10 corridor over to
13 there. Well, I got to tell you Monticello to Hunter
14 plant is a little bit southeast not northeast.
15 Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
16 (Applause).
17 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: The court reporter
18 needs to take a break. We'll take a 10 minute break and
19 then we'll be back here at 2:45.
20 (Recess from 2:37 p.m. to 2:54 p.m.)
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Everyone, we're
22 going to get started again in a couple of minutes. So
23 if we could move one of the speakers outside the room so
24 the folks outside can hear. Are you able to hear us out
25 there? Great. Okay. So we're going to get started
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 67 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 again.
2 Okay. If I can have Larry Castle-Fericks.
3 LARRY CASTLE-FERICKS: Good afternoon. My
4 name is Larry Castle-Fericks. And that's L-A-R-R-Y,
5 after my grandfather. And C-A-S-T-L-E dash
6 F-E-R-I-C-K-S. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
7 We're all passionate about the air we breathe
8 because it's really important to us. I am a Salt Lake
9 resident, so I get to breathe this lovely air all the
10 time. And I just came today because I'd like to urge
11 the EPA to support implementation of any current
12 technology to provide clean air for all of us to
13 breathe, and to reduce the haze impacting the vistas in
14 our national parks.
15 As a lifelong Utah resident, I have grown up
16 appreciating the magnificent scenery surrounding us.
17 You only need to drive along I-70 and be humbled by the
18 enormity of the landscape as the San Rafael Swell rises
19 up before you. This is why people come here from around
20 the world and actually end up choosing to move here.
21 The haze that's generated by any power plant
22 does not belong here due to the enormity of the scenery.
23 It does not belong -- the arches that cover the La Sal
24 Mountains so that you no longer see their snow capped
25 peaks.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 68 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Not only is our health at stake, but our
2 economy, in the tourist industry and the many jobs that
3 are supported -- that support the power industry itself.
4 We have technology to manage these problems. We're a
5 smart country. And we are developing new technologies
6 all the time. We are downwind of a lot of pollutants in
7 this state just because of air patterns. We should do
8 what we can to eliminate those things we can control.
9 And that's why I support the use of any clean
10 air technology that can be implemented, and I support
11 the fact that the EPA and Utah Division of Air Quality
12 are working and striving towards creating a breathable
13 air for all of us. Thank you.
14 (Applause).
15 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, is
16 it Jae Potter?
17 JAE POTTER: Jae Potter. J-A-E, P-O-T-T-E-R,
18 like Harry. I am a Carbon County commissioner, and I am
19 here today speaking in behalf of the commission and the
20 citizens of Carbon County. That means I represent about
21 19,000 people, the majority of which would support the
22 state plan. And that's why I am here is to tell you
23 that we support the state's implementation plan, not
24 what the federal government through the EPA is
25 proposing.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 69 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Now, I am very grateful to those that have
2 traveled up here. It is too bad that you did not choose
3 a better location than downtown Salt Lake. It's also a
4 very poor choice of facilities. We have facilities in
5 our counties that you could have enjoyed a day out of
6 the city and also appreciated the clean air that is
7 there.
8 My hope today is to help you understand what
9 the impacts really of your plan -- of the federal plan
10 would mean to our area. We are counties, and I speak
11 for Carbon and Emery, that are reliant upon the
12 economies of mineral extraction and power generation.
13 80 percent of our economy is impacted because of that.
14 That is where the work is provided.
15 If we were to lose another power plant, which
16 we have already sacrificed the Carbon plant two years
17 early to reach the attainment in the BART alternative,
18 and if we are to lose more coal mines, perhaps we will
19 all come and live with you in Salt Lake, compete for
20 your jobs, pollute your air, and in the meantime you
21 should keep your haze in your own valley.
22 As I came up over the summit today, I could
23 see it just settle into Utah County, and I look back my
24 direction, and it was a nice day.
25 Now, statistically, it's been already talked
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 70 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 about, the air currents, and it's hard for me to
2 believe, as I have been in the national parks, that any
3 of the pollution, the haze that you want to talk about,
4 the NOx and so forth, from the power plants reaches any
5 of the power plant -- or any of the state or national
6 parks.
7 I know that there are many things that could
8 be done. In a recent air permitting hearing in
9 Wellington, we had one of our local physicians stand up
10 and said, if you really want to cure the problems that
11 are with respiratory and with the illnesses that are
12 always attributed to the pollution, do a great campaign
13 and get rid of smoking. That would save lives.
14 Another citizen said what you are really
15 trying to do is tell us that what we should do to clear
16 up the air up here in Salt Lake and other regional areas
17 is, why don't we restrict the use of cars in Salt Lake
18 Valley. Nobody up here can drive a car. But when I
19 come visit you, I'll be happy to drive my car up.
20 That's exactly what you're telling us about
21 clean power plant and also about the regional haze, is
22 let's impact the areas, let's take the attacks on the
23 culture and upon the businesses that made their
24 livelihood through those particular projects.
25 The closure of Carbon 1 and 2, two years
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 71 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 early, and this is the phase of what we're talking
2 about, was 75 jobs at the power plant. Compound that by
3 approximately five, and you will have at least 300 jobs
4 that were either done away with or jeopardized.
5 In addition to that there's the ancillary
6 jobs. You talk about a coal mine that closes, it's
7 again five times. So that has impacted every bit of our
8 market, our stores, our tourism, our real estate, and
9 the people that want to live and make a living in our
10 area.
11 I would like to again ask you to support the
12 state-implemented plan. They have already done wonders
13 in improving the air quality and especially the
14 visibility. I really don't believe that the EPA can put
15 attainment areas in a box, and until you bring forth
16 plans that show what you are going to do in other areas
17 and not just in Carbon and Emery counties against the
18 power plants, I don't have great faith in what your
19 proposal is. So again I support the state plan. Thank
20 you.
21 (Applause).
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Potter.
23 Next, if we can have Garrett Atwood.
24 GARRETT ATWOOD: Good afternoon. My name is
25 Garrett Atwood. G-A-R-R-E-T-T, A-T-W-O-O-D. I work in
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 72 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 the coal industry and was born and raised in central
2 Utah. Like many of you, I grew up in the outdoors of
3 central Utah. Even as I drove through Carbon and Emery
4 County on my way here this morning, I was impressed by
5 how beautiful it is, and the scenery is easy to see
6 because the air is so clear.
7 I echo the comments that were made early that
8 it would be nice to have this hearing down in Carbon and
9 Emery County because the air is so beautiful, and
10 instead of coming to Salt Lake City and seeing the haze
11 that's up here and probably is influencing people's
12 opinions of what the air is like in Carbon and Emery
13 County.
14 I support the State Implementation Plan as
15 it's been proposed by the state. I commend our state
16 officials for the correct approach in working with the
17 industry to meet and exceed the emissions criteria
18 imposed by the EPA. I think it's amazing that a rule
19 was given by the EPA. A criteria was set. The state
20 has achieved it or exceeded it, and yet we are still
21 having this discussion. It makes me wonder what the
22 real agenda is.
23 Allowing our federal government to mandate
24 excessive and expensive emissions controls and retrofits
25 is a bad idea. These retrofits are estimated to cost
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 73 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 around 700 million dollars. PacifiCorp pass these
2 expenses on to customers in Utah through the rate
3 increases. Businesses and residents would feel the
4 effect of this.
5 I would urge the EPA to approve Option 1 as
6 the SIP is proposed by the state. And I believe it's a
7 more cost effective approach to achieving the mandated
8 emissions criteria, and I thank you for your time.
9 (Applause).
10 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Atwood.
11 Jeff Sego.
12 JEFF SEGO: My name is Jeff Sego. J-E-F-F,
13 S-E-G-O. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here
14 today. I am here because I am a concerned citizen. I
15 am concerned about the environment, and I'm concerned
16 about the people of our state and their overall
17 wellbeing. I believe everyone attending here today is
18 concerned about the environment in general. We all want
19 to preserve the things that we enjoy for our children
20 and those that follow us.
21 My family and I enjoy many outdoor activities
22 in the areas of concern. We have spent many vacation
23 hours in our national parks, and we go to the San Rafael
24 Swell yearly. I have never seen the haze I hear talked
25 about in these areas coming from these plants. Any haze
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 74 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 in the national parks and recreational areas, I believe
2 is grossly overstated.
3 I understand the concerns about pollution. I
4 understand the haze concerns coming from living in areas
5 of the Wasatch Front where many of us in attendance
6 today live.
7 To truly solve a problem or exposure, you need
8 to look for root cause. I believe people are trying to
9 do that with problem solving, but many times we quit too
10 soon or are not willing to accept what root cause really
11 is.
12 The power plants are not the root cause of the
13 pollution issues here in this state, neither the
14 national parks or the Wasatch Front. I encourage people
15 to go out there and visit those areas, as many of you
16 that have spoken previously have suggested.
17 The EPA has already accepted and approved the
18 changes made at these power plants as meeting the
19 necessary requirements. I believe we should all
20 seriously question EPA's real motives in having this
21 hearing today, including the location in relationship to
22 the areas of concern.
23 To mandate newly proposed changes at these
24 plants would have huge repercussions to the economy of
25 Utah, would have a quick and direct negative impact on
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 75 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 the rural communities of our state. I know that's not a
2 concern for many you here today, but please do not be
3 naive enough to think that many more of you would not be
4 affected in other ways negatively.
5 The tax base for the state would suffer
6 tremendously. The consumer will suffer substantial
7 energy increase -- increases in their rates, and our
8 state would no longer be attractive for outside business
9 development. A mandate like this hurts us all. Nobody
10 should be naive about that, not just the guy in the
11 small town that we don't care about.
12 We have geographical challenges with these
13 beautiful mountain valleys, and they are prone to
14 inversion and haze. That we cannot change. So I urge
15 everyone in attendance to truly look at and be willing
16 to accept root cause for pollution and the haze issues
17 in Utah. It's likely that 95 percent of us contributed
18 to that today. I doubt there's many of us who walked
19 here or even carpooled. It's easy to see if you are
20 willing to accept it.
21 The answer to our concerns about air quality
22 is not to mandate new rules or requirements at the cost
23 of crippling our urban communities, rural counties or
24 the state in general. The solution to our concerns will
25 take us all working together, but the first step is
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 76 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 identifying the real problem.
2 In closing, I urge the EPA to back Option No.
3 1 and do so in using the statements of myself and the
4 fellow citizens here today that are concerned about the
5 citizens of Utah and their overall wellbeing.
6 (Applause).
7 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. If we
8 could have Sara Straw.
9 SARA STRAW: Sara Straw. S-A-R-A, S-T-R-A-W.
10 I live in Sevier County. I moved to Utah in 1975. I
11 was blown away by the astonishing beauty of the state
12 and said I'm living here and I don't care how poor I
13 have to be to do so. And sure enough, I am poor.
14 My husband did work at the Sufco coal mine in
15 Sevier County for a few years. But in 1985, a whole
16 bunch of the coal miners just lost their jobs. Dam
17 environmentalists. No, actually it was the mine. They
18 brought in the long wall. So, you know, change happens.
19 You lose your job and move on and do something else.
20 And I am afraid coal is one of those things,
21 like buggy whips and film for cameras, that's time is
22 moving onward, and eventually it will be gone. And I
23 don't want anyone to lose their job, but on the other
24 hand, you know, I don't want my grandchildren to lose
25 their abilities to be alive because there's no oxygen
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 77 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 because we have decimated the plant.
2 And so I am for the federal plan to have
3 stricter regulations. And I am sure that all the coal
4 plants will abide and the people will keep their jobs,
5 and will clean up the air, and eventually coal will go
6 the way of the buggy whip and we'll have cleaner,
7 sustainable energy.
8 Our grandchildren will have a chance to have
9 grandchildren of their own and life will be good. So
10 that's what we need to do. We all want electricity.
11 And we all want happy, healthy grandchildren, and so
12 let's do that.
13 (Applause).
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Tim
15 Wagner. Tim Wagner. (No response). Okay. Next, if we
16 could have Matt Pancenza. Matt P-A-N-C-E-N-Z-A.
17 RICH MYLOTT: Matt's definitely here.
18 MATT PANCENZA: Good afternoon. My name is
19 Matt Pancenza. I am the executive director of Heal
20 Utah, and I appreciate the opportunity to comment today.
21 Before I quickly urge the EPA to take a
22 particular action, I wanted to raise the possibility of
23 considering having another hearing. I think, you know,
24 we appreciate the passion of folks from Carbon and Emery
25 County who have made their way up here, and clearly they
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 78 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 have strong feelings about the potential impact of this
2 rule upon their livelihoods.
3 I think we can all agree in retrospect, it
4 would have been ideal to have a hearing down there and
5 perhaps one up here. One of the things we witnessed out
6 in the hallway today is there have been dozens, if not
7 hundreds, of people who have come to try to speak but
8 then, intimidated by the length of the line and the size
9 of the crowd, they turned away. So I am not sure the
10 balance of speakers so far accurately reflects the
11 intention of folks who did want to speak. So hopefully
12 we can come up with a way to hear from other people as
13 well.
14 You know, some people in the room do not want
15 to hear this, but we do believe that it is appropriate
16 and necessary to order SCR on the Hunter and Huntington
17 coal-fired power plant units.
18 We live in a time when there's bad news and
19 good news, and the bad news is we do have demonstrated
20 effects of burning coal power on our visibility, on our
21 health and on a wide range of things. The good news is,
22 there's incredibly talented scientists and engineers
23 that have developed technology in order to clean a lot
24 of that.
25 And I don't think we are lobbying for the end
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 79 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of coal power. I think we are lobbying for taking
2 advantage of the state-of-the-art technologies that can
3 make dramatic differences in pollution that comes out of
4 the smokestacks.
5 And I think we would point out there's jobs in
6 creating these technologies. There's jobs in installing
7 these technologies. There's jobs in maintaining these
8 technologies. So jobs and environmental improvement do
9 not need to be at odds in this particular case.
10 So we do strongly believe that the EPA needs
11 to install and require SCR. We believe that the studies
12 that have been done by independent consultants, the
13 expertise, the arguments that have been made by Heal, by
14 the Sierra Club and many others would certainly reach
15 that conclusion.
16 So I'm going to end my time. There's a lot of
17 people that want to speak. Again, I appreciate
18 everyone's passion here. I'm glad we are all here.
19 Let's try to do it again where we can give more and more
20 people a chance to speak, not just the few who have
21 managed to crawl the top the of line.
22 So thank you very, very much. Thanks for
23 coming to Salt Lake.
24 (Applause).
25 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next if we
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 80 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 could have James Cutler.
2 JAMES CATLIN: My name is James Catlin, is
3 that what's on the card?
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Yeah, sorry.
5 JAMES CATLIN: J-A-M-E-S, C-A-T-L-I-N. I'm a
6 retired scientist and I live in Salt Lake City. Thank
7 you for coming to Salt Lake. This is an important
8 hearing. It's about Utah's quality of life. It's about
9 the economy. I am in favor of increasing emission
10 controls and emission equipment on the power plants in
11 question.
12 I think that this is a case where we are going
13 to see significant amount of money spent that is going
14 to keep the coal industry there longer. Now, I am
15 willing to pay more for my electricity, more in my
16 utility rates in order to help this happen.
17 I know this is necessary to do this, in part
18 because I remember growing up in Utah, more than 50
19 years ago, traveling with my family to remote places in
20 Utah, capitol Reef National Park being one of them. I
21 remember it was views without the slightest hint of any
22 degradation in air quality.
23 And over the years, I now work as a scientist
24 in these rural places and remote places, and you never
25 see that kind of air quality again. It's exceedingly
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 81 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 rare except after a storm that you have that experience.
2 This is something that people across the United States
3 don't have.
4 You know, I think we can do this and still
5 have an energy industry. And we can still have the
6 multi billion dollar outdoor industry that employs over
7 a hundred thousand people directly in Utah. And this is
8 about jobs and about the future. The future is going to
9 be different, and I think that we need to be ready for
10 it.
11 The governor, preparing this energy proposal
12 for the future, looked at how many jobs were now in
13 different sectors of the energy industry. He found
14 there were quite a few in the coal industry. But what
15 was amazing is that he found there were even more in
16 renewable energy. Even though we have only about 2
17 percent of our energy today in renewable, we have more
18 jobs in that area.
19 I think we can have both. I think we can
20 continue to support the workers and families that are in
21 need of jobs. But we have to look to an economic
22 difference in the future. Well, thank you for this
23 opportunity.
24 (Applause).
25 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Catlin.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 82 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 I'm sorry I got your name wrong. Is Suzanne Sensa still
2 here?
3 FEMALE VOICE: She had to go. She's not here.
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Next, if we can
5 have Randy Pickett.
6 RANDY PICKETT: I don't know if I can do
7 justice to what I have to say, because I don't have much
8 of a voice, due to cancer. You know, it's a funny thing
9 about cancer. There's a line down there called Sevier
10 County, and radiation only goes to that line and stops.
11 Because it knows that it doesn't affect anyone beyond
12 it. My dad died from complications of cancer. Hundreds
13 of people in our valley died from complications of
14 cancer, because the winds blow from down by Las Vegas up
15 this way. Not from us that way.
16 Those parks never have been affected, only but
17 once in a blue moon by the winds. You know, the jet
18 stream, if you watch, you will have a high pressure, and
19 the only time that jet stream bends is when it hits a
20 high pressure. And it bends and goes around it. But
21 basically it goes from west to east.
22 I looked up on the Internet last night. The
23 winds in Utah, 26 percent of them come from the south.
24 24 percent come from the southeast. That's almost 50
25 percent of our -- do you know how much of it goes from
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 83 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 here that way? 18 percent. So those power plants,
2 although we do need the clean air, do not affect our
3 parks.
4 Maybe we should understand what the fight
5 really is. Maybe the winds coming out of California
6 bring all that pollution up to those parks. Maybe we
7 ought to do something about those pollutants, not worry
8 about five little power plants.
9 Now, I also looked up what pollutants come
10 from power plants. And I looked up what comes from
11 cars. Guess what? They are exactly the same. Only
12 there is millions, millions of cars, not just five.
13 There's millions of them.
14 So why -- and you say oh, we have done
15 something about it. We put restrictions on those cars.
16 Yeah, now what used to get 20 miles to the gallon gets
17 five, seven. You should be getting 50 or 60. And then
18 you would only burn a gallon of gas. What a novel idea.
19 To solve some of our pollution. But, no, we'll worry
20 about a power plant that's going to put lots of people
21 out of a job. Thank you for your time.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
24 Mr. Pickett. Jeff Noyes.
25 JEFF NOYES: I appreciate the opportunity to
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 84 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 voice my opinion. My name is Jeff Noyes. J-E-F-F,
2 N-O-Y-E-S. I am a life-long resident of Carbon and
3 Emery County. I am an employee of Sufco coal mine. And
4 I am a supporter of Option 1. In my life experience in
5 Carbon and Emery county, I have witnessed the over -- I
6 am looking for, over regulated, over regulating, I have
7 witnessed devastation to these two counties by over
8 regulating. And I urge you, as the EPA, to support
9 Option 1, and help us save our jobs as coal miners,
10 power plant workers, coal truck drivers. The trickle
11 down effect is tremendous.
12 And in closing, I'd just like to say I'm proud
13 to be a coal miner. Proud to work with -- and be
14 associated with the best damn coal miners in the world.
15 (Applause).
16 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
17 we can have Mark Thomas. Marc Thomas. He's gone. If
18 he shows up, I'll let him speak. John Wysheit. John
19 Wysheit. No? Okay. Larry Olsen.
20 LARRY OLSEN: Hi. My name is Larry Olsen.
21 That's O-L-S-E-N. I am here as a concerned citizen and
22 a concerned coal miner. I am from Carbon County. Up
23 until a year ago, we had four of them in a hundred mile
24 radius. I have lived there all my life. A life-long
25 resident.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 85 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 We do, as many people have said, have the
2 clearest air around. Not just certain days, but every
3 day, you can wake up and see clear across the valley.
4 And from my house, you can pretty well see the Hunter
5 power plant, and it's very clear.
6 I would love to say that a lot of these people
7 are uninformed that are opposing this. But I won't. We
8 are here to talk to the EPA, and you know what? It --
9 this administration has really been after coal mines and
10 anything to do with fossil fuels. Let's stop and let's
11 look at the information that's not being provided to you
12 from your people on what you want to hear. Let's look
13 at reality. Our air is clear.
14 The national parks, like many of have said,
15 are not being fed from these power plants, and that's
16 what we're here to talk about is these two power plants.
17 The third one is idled as you heard, even though it was
18 mentioned earlier. That's what it's about.
19 I strongly disagree that you need to put more
20 on these power plants because they are not being
21 affected as the information that you're being told.
22 Quit looking at the paper. Look outside and
23 look at the air. It's clear. I have no health issues
24 due to breathing bad air or anything, and neither does
25 my family. I have grandkids that absolutely, they will
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 86 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 be raised in Carbon and Emery counties. So I'll just
2 keep it short. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
3 (Applause).
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Gail Solomon. Gail
5 Solomon.
6 RICH MYLOTT: Gail Solomon. No. No.
7 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Paul Balo.
8 Paul B-A-L-O.
9 RICH MYLOTT: Paul Balo. B-A-L-O. No.
10 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Wyn Smith. Wyn
11 Smith.
12 RICH MYLOTT: Wyn Smith.
13 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Mimi Trudeaux. Mimi
14 Trudeaux.
15 RICH MYLOTT: No.
16 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Jay, is it Vestal?
17 Jay Vestal, V-E-S-T-A-L.
18 FEMALE VOICE: Never mind. He didn't want to
19 comment.
20 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Alan Peterson. Alan
21 Peterson.
22 ALAN PETERSON: Hey.
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Oh, there you are.
24 ALAN PETERSON: Can I bring a picture up
25 front?
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 87 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Sure.
2 ALAN PETERSON: Thank you for the opportunity.
3 I did not come prepared. I'm winging it. The yellow
4 card was my ticket to get in this room. My main purpose
5 for coming up today, I jumped in with three other guys
6 this morning, was to bring a picture of the Hunter power
7 plant and the beautiful blue skies and the beautiful
8 white steam that is coming out of the building towers
9 and the stacks. That's what's on the picture in front
10 of you.
11 I'm going to assume that EPA people probably
12 have not visited Emery County. Perhaps you have never
13 seen the Hunter power plant or the Huntington plant that
14 this discussion is about. I am also going to venture a
15 guess that 90 percent of the people in opposition have
16 also never been to Emery County, Carbon County, and seen
17 those plants.
18 I encourage everybody to do that, to see why
19 we love living in rural Utah, including Sanpete and
20 Sevier, to see why it's important to us to be able to
21 raise our families there. We love our children more
22 than you ever will, and that's where we want them to be
23 raised.
24 The talk today is about haze and evidently
25 where this haze comes from and where it goes. This
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 88 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 picture in front of you I took on January 1. I was
2 headed down on the desert with my dogs to chase dead
3 Indians, and the locals might know what that means.
4 And I stopped four different times to take
5 pictures of the Hunter power plant because the beauty
6 and because of the controversy. And what goes through
7 my mind is, how can this, what you see on that picture,
8 turn into the haze that these valleys up here in
9 northern Utah are faced with?
10 I come late to this party because I have been
11 trapped outside. So I don't know what all has been
12 talked about. I don't know what all has been said. But
13 I do know that the power company has installed what they
14 were told they had to install, with the agreement that
15 it made, and now to change the rules -- yeah.
16 The best technology is a good thing. Our
17 scientists that were mentioned, the people who develop
18 this stuff, those are all good things. My question and
19 challenge to the EPA is, you do the research. What
20 percentage are we talking about?
21 If we've already cleaned say 95 percent of all
22 emissions out, is this fight over the last five, or have
23 we already cleaned 99 and this fight is over the last
24 one? And then what percentage does coal burn in the
25 United States, compared to worldwide?
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 89 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 One last thing I want to mention. I sent this
2 picture to the four news stations a few weeks ago to
3 their meteorologists. I got responses back from Channel
4 13 and Channel 4. And in that e-mail I asked, please
5 explain how the blue skies, the beautiful blue skies at
6 this plant turn into the smog and haze in Salt Lake that
7 I hear about.
8 I specifically asked about up here not the
9 parks because they never entered my mind because I visit
10 the parks in San Rafael weekly. And the two that
11 responded said absolutely no connections. The emissions
12 from those power plants do not affect Salt Lake Valley.
13 Our problems are local.
14 He did encourage me to go to the state's
15 website, which I did, the Division of Environmental
16 Quality. I found an article on there about Asian
17 pollution, and it tracked it through satellite imagery
18 coming from China across the ocean and in California and
19 Nevada and into Utah. And in the article it said that
20 pollution is picked up on monitoring in Utah. But it's
21 not produced in Utah. So how can it be regulated in
22 Utah? Thank you.
23 (Applause).
24 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Marc
25 Thomas.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 90 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 MARC THOMAS: Thank you. It's good to see a
2 lot of friendly faces here today. Hi. My name is Mark
3 Thomas. I'm from Moab, Utah.
4 It's very simple. In its plan submitted to
5 the EPA, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality
6 should have required the Hunter and Huntington
7 coal-fired power plants to install selective catalytic
8 reduction emission control systems to convert dangerous
9 nitrogen oxide into more benign chemicals.
10 SCR technology is required usage in New
11 England and in our neighboring states of New Mexico,
12 Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. Why does this state
13 always have to be an outlier when it comes to enacting
14 effective regulation controls on industries whose
15 emissions impact the health and wellbeing of its
16 citizens? Even a place that believes in limited
17 government is supposed to put the health of its
18 citizenry above all else.
19 Just look at what is happening today in Flint,
20 Michigan when that guiding principle is overlooked. If
21 the use of SCR technology is important enough to protect
22 the citizens living in neighboring states, then it
23 should be required use in coal power plants in Utah to
24 protect our quality of life.
25 Both the state and PacifiCorp greatly
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 91 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 over-estimate the cost of retrofitting the plants with
2 this technology. Upgrades elsewhere have proven cost
3 effective, and they under-estimate its benefits. Your
4 own studies show the systems reduced nitrogen oxide
5 emissions by 70 to 90 percent. Anyone who suffers from
6 a respiratory condition, asthmatics, children, the
7 elderly, pays the price when these emissions become
8 particulates in the air that we breathe.
9 The state has been dragging its heels since
10 2003 in coming up with a best available practices haze
11 and nitrogen oxide reduction plans. The fact that one
12 of your own sister agencies, the Southeast Utah Group of
13 the Utah National Park Service, which manages both
14 Arches and Canyonlands, finds the state plan lacking and
15 wants to see SCR technology implemented, speaks volumes
16 about the current plan's shortcomings.
17 I have a personal recollection. Twenty years
18 ago when I was trying to convince my wife that moving to
19 rural southern Utah from urban Chicago wasn't a
20 hair-brained idea, I took her to the Green River
21 Overlook in Canyonlands. There she had her aha moment
22 as she gazed down at the Green River snaking around
23 Turk's Head, with deeply incised canyons below her and
24 the majestic buttes of the Maze off in the distance.
25 There and then she fell in love with this land, and 10
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 92 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 years ago we moved permanently to Moab.
2 Proud of the beauty where I live, I am worried
3 that today's visitor standing at the canyon overlooks in
4 southern Utah wouldn't experience their own aha moments.
5 Sadly when friends visit, I now hesitate to take them to
6 Grand View Point, Green River Overlook or Dead Horse
7 Point, for fear, as the National Park Service has
8 documented, that more than 80 percent of the time haze
9 has degraded these view sheds.
10 I am urging you to reject the Utah DEQ
11 Regional Haze Plan in favor of one that requires the
12 installation of SCR systems for the control of nitrogen
13 oxide. To do so will hold this state to the same
14 standards as our neighboring states and be in line with
15 the goals of the 1970 Clean Air Act, the 2012 Regional
16 Haze Plan and the 2015 Clean Power Plan, all of which
17 are key building blocks in reducing our nation's air
18 pollution.
19 Thank you for your time. I appreciate you
20 letting me speak at this forum.
21 (Applause).
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: John Weisheit. I
23 don't know if I am saying that right. John. Coming.
24 Oh, great.
25 JOHN WEISHEIT: My name is John Weisheit.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 93 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 That's spelled W-E-I-S-H-E-I-T. I live in Moab, Utah.
2 I have lived there since 1986. Before that I lived in
3 Maricopa County in Arizona, along the Salt River, and
4 before that I lived in Los Angeles County, drinking
5 water from the metropolitan water district.
6 The Colorado River has been in my life since
7 infancy. My first boat trip was in 1959. I am
8 currently 62 years old. I became a full-time river
9 guide in 1980. I have done over 350 river trips down
10 Canyonlands National Park. I have done 50 trips in the
11 Grand Canyon.
12 I wrote a book with two other authors
13 published by the University of Utah press called Grand
14 Canyon. In that book we described how the changes are
15 occurring in Canyonlands National Park. Our beaches are
16 not as big as they used to be. Our fish are more
17 endangered. The effects of climate change are affecting
18 our vegetation.
19 You are not supposed to see these kinds of
20 changes in your lifetime. I have managed to see them in
21 less than 30 years.
22 As a person who does a lot of river trips and
23 spends a lot of time in the outdoors for over six
24 decades, I can tell you that we are negatively impacting
25 our natural resources. And I should say that as a
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 94 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 private river runner, I have done the San Rafael River.
2 I have done Dirty River or Muddy River, excuse me, and
3 the Dirty Devil River, and which are, of course the
4 water supply for the two coal plants in question.
5 So I have seen a change in the air quality of
6 the region that I work and play in. I don't think that
7 they are going to take my job away, but I think they are
8 making my job more and more unattractive when I can't
9 enjoy clean air and vibrant resources and vibrant
10 ecology, and my customers want these assets to be
11 restored in Canyons Lands region and the Colorado River
12 Basin in general.
13 So I would ask the EPA to please put
14 restrictions that will also not take jobs away. It will
15 actually improve our air and improve our livelihoods and
16 our quality of life together. So I would like to see
17 our -- the jobs that these resource provided to be a
18 sustainable environment, and I encourage the EPA to
19 please make our air cleaner. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Paul Balo,
22 Paul.
23 PAUL BALO: Good afternoon. My name is Paul
24 Balo. B-A-L-O. And I am a resident of Moab, Utah. I
25 did submit written comments, although I may stray from
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 95 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 them some. I'm speaking in favor of the Clean Parks
2 Plan. I speak for the neighbors and friends who have
3 experienced respiratory problems. Some of them cannot
4 tolerate the air in Salt Lake City and avoid this area.
5 Healthy air quality is important to everyone
6 in the area, residents and visitors alike. The
7 enjoyment of the outdoors is negatively affected by the
8 haze.
9 I do not want to give a free pass to the
10 Hunter and Huntington power plants. This is not
11 acceptable. Lack of selective catalytic reduction, SCR,
12 does not utilize the required best available technology.
13 Do not be distracted. These plants should be commended
14 for efforts to reduce particulates and sulfur emissions
15 and the installation of low NOx burners. But these are
16 not keeping up with the available means for continuous
17 improvements.
18 And by the way, I am a miner. I have worked
19 on the metal side. So I do identify with the problems
20 people in the mining industry have. And I am also
21 concerned that without installing these controls that
22 the plants are going to be more susceptible to being
23 shut down in the future because they would be on a list
24 of the dirty plants.
25 So please install these controls to protect
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 96 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 our miners. I do identify with them. Utah depends upon
2 the revenue encouraged. It's 700 million dollars per
3 year. And if transportation and recreation are
4 included, this impact is 7 billion dollars per year.
5 Maybe sharing these figures will get action to protect
6 our visual resources and clear the air.
7 In social media we like to put our best foot
8 forward, and I'm guilty of doing that. What I am
9 advocating is, we begin to show photographs to our
10 contacts when conditions are poor in comparison to the
11 few days we have clearer air.
12 In addition to this request to support the
13 Clean Parts Plan, to take action to illustrate these
14 comparisons, I avoid going to the scenic vistas, like
15 John mentioned just before me, whenever the air is hazy.
16 And I think I have been complicit in providing views
17 that is less than accurate just this week when I went to
18 share views on social media that the average visitor
19 will see less than 25 percent of the time.
20 What I am asking for is people to share
21 comparison photographs of what clear air is like versus
22 less than ideal situations. I believe that many people
23 do not even recognize what clear air looks like.
24 Statistics and data are very important to
25 quantify what's happening. But on visual resources, the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 97 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 photograph is much easier to digest and provide impacts.
2 This is my equivalent of the transparency and openness
3 we demand from our leaders and regulators. Thank you
4 for your time and attention.
5 (Applause).
6 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Balo.
7 Dick Comminski. Dick Comminski. Mark Barone. Mark
8 Barone. Libby Ellis.
9 LIBBY ELLIS: Thank you. My name is Libby
10 Ellis, and I am proud to stand here today on behalf
11 Black Diamond Equipment. At Black Diamond,
12 headquartered here in Salt Lake City, we design,
13 engineer, manufacture and sell innovative outdoor
14 equipment, apparels for climbers, back country skiers
15 and Alpine skiers.
16 Black Diamond contributes significantly to
17 Utah's business and tourist economy. On any given day,
18 whether in our national parks, forests or wilderness
19 areas, our products are used by outdoor enthusiasts,
20 helping them enjoy their experiences to the fullest.
21 While our business depends upon the health of
22 our national parks, the soul of our business, the
23 inspiration from which we draw our ideas and our
24 passions, depends upon the protection even more so.
25 Today, our state's iconic landscapes, Arches, Escalante,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 98 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Grand Canyon, Canyonlands and on are being harmed by
2 dangerous haze-causing pollution. This air pollution is
3 coming in part, in part from the Hunter and Huntington
4 coal-burning power plants in southern Utah.
5 Black Diamond is here today to urge the EPA to
6 require that the Huntington and Hunter coal plants be
7 upgraded with SCR pollution controls. This technology
8 has been used successfully, without taking away jobs, to
9 lower air pollution in over 250 coal plants throughout
10 the country already.
11 The Regional Haze Rule of the Clean Air Act
12 requires you, the EPA, to return our national parks'
13 natural visibility by 2060. Please don't wait until
14 2060 to protect our parks' air sheds and air quality.
15 Require retrofitting of Hunter and Huntington
16 coal-burning plans with industry-accepted pollution
17 controls. Thank you.
18 (Applause).
19 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Richard
20 Parkins.
21 RICHARD PARKINS: I will defer until later
22 because some have to leave.
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Can we have
24 Rebecca Hinsell. Rebecca Hinsell. Beth Hayes. Beth
25 Hayes. Heila Ershadi. Heila Ershadi. Up to the podium
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 99 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 please.
2 HEILA ERSHADI: Good afternoon. First off,
3 thank you for your time and consideration today. I know
4 there are knowledgeable, intelligent people coming down
5 on different sides of this issue, and I appreciate that
6 you have a difficult and important job to receive a
7 whole lot of input and use that to make a wise decision.
8 I am actually glad I had to wait such a long
9 time to speak because it gave me a chance to talk to
10 many great people on all sides of the issue. Once
11 again, I am reminded how great the people of Utah are
12 regardless of their stance on regional haze or other
13 issues.
14 My name is Heila Ershadi. H-E-I-L-A,
15 E-R-S-H-A-D-I, and I have traveled here today all the
16 way from Moab for the opportunity to weigh in on
17 Regional Haze Rule. I am a member of Moab city council
18 and a mother of two children who have been born and
19 raised in Moab.
20 As a mother and a city council member, I am
21 concerned about air pollution and its effects on both
22 visibility and health. I realize that the regional haze
23 rule addresses visibility only, but the health
24 consequences of nitrous oxides and the particulates and
25 ground level ozone to which they contribute cannot be
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 100 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 discounted, particularly in an area where people come
2 not only to enjoy the views but to get out and move and
3 breath deeply.
4 Moab, as we all know, is a gateway community
5 surrounded by several national parks as well as a host
6 of other scenic wonders. Many people have moved to Moab
7 largely out of love for the vibrant, unparallel
8 landscapes, and there are many people with deep roots in
9 our community whose families have treasured the area for
10 generations.
11 Our national parks with their world-class
12 vistas bring people from all over the world, creating a
13 multi-million-dollar tourism industry that is the
14 keystone of our economy. But the intrinsic value of
15 clear, healthy air is much greater, and that's why the
16 Regional Haze Rule was created to protect our national
17 park as the commonly held treasures that they are. We
18 need to be able to see their worth.
19 PacifiCorp deserves the credit for what they
20 have already done to increase energy efficiency and
21 reduce emissions from the plants, all while providing
22 affordable power for their consumers, and there are
23 regulations that can unfairly burden utility providers,
24 and we do face uncertainty in what future regulations
25 may mandate.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 101 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Legally that can't influence the decision in
2 the case of regional haze, but we do well to consider
3 that just as important as enforcing legislation that
4 makes sense is getting rid of expensive red tape.
5 Pollution controls may be less controversial if the
6 power companies and by extension their consumers and
7 employees are not so burdened in other ways.
8 We need to change the conversation around
9 clean air and regulation. Conservation and power
10 companies and regulatory agencies need to sit down and
11 find common ground to figure out how we can get more
12 benefit and less impact from regulations. As our region
13 grows -- take actions to prevent that. Let's make sure
14 our regulations make sense.
15 Selective catalytic reduction technology does
16 make sense, which is why it's being used in neighboring
17 states. National Park Service has done an excellent job
18 of making it comprehensible to the public. They have
19 meticulously documented the likely visibility benefits
20 and the regulatory language that requires the best
21 available retrofit technology.
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Ms. Ershadi, your time
23 is up. So can you wrap up, please.
24 HEILA ERSHADI: Oh, sure. And so I stand with
25 the National Park Service and many other groups in
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 102 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 asking the EPA to adopt fair clean air protection that
2 include industry standard pollution technology that will
3 improve visibility in parks and as well as clean the
4 air. Thank you.
5 (Applause).
6 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Edith O'Brian. Edith
7 O'Brian. Michael Shea. Michael Shea.
8 RICH MYLOTT: Michael Shea is here.
9 MICHAEL SHEA: Hello. My name is Michael
10 Shea. I'm with Heal Utah. First off, thank you so much
11 for the EPA for taking the time to come out and hear the
12 very diverse group of opinions being talked about today.
13 You know, I have been sitting here waiting and listening
14 to everybody's different opinions about, you know, why
15 this is necessary or why this shouldn't happen, and I
16 mean, it's incredibly difficult.
17 We have an industry that is part of a
18 community that's helped create jobs and give them
19 livelihood to many, many people and their families. And
20 I can see how where everybody here is coming from. But
21 on the other hand, our national parks are an incredibly
22 valuable resource, and any -- any haze, any type of
23 pollution that impedes people from being able to enjoy
24 those parks, it needs to be controlled. And it is
25 unfortunate and, you know, I hope that we can work
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 103 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 together as a community.
2 I am native Utah. I am born and raised here.
3 Just trying to come up with solutions. But I think in
4 the meantime, we need to listen to the scientific voices
5 of our country who are saying that this is a very
6 dangerous pollutant and that these scrubbers do need to
7 be installed. Because the national parks are an
8 incredibly productive and economically viable industry
9 that's going to continue with us long into the future.
10 And while I do greatly feel for all the proud
11 coal miners that are here today, I think that in the
12 long run it is what needs to be done. And I just hope
13 we can all sort of co-up around saying that the Denver
14 Broncos are going to win the Super Bowl this -- two
15 weeks from now. But thank you so much, and we
16 appreciate you coming out today.
17 (Applause).
18 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Tim Wagner. Is
19 Mr. Wagner here? Kathryn Albury. Kathryn Albury.
20 RICH MYLOTT: Kathryn is here.
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: No? Okay. Randy
22 Tatton, Tatton. T-A-T-T-O-N.
23 RANDY TATTON: Good afternoon. Thanks for the
24 opportunity to be here. My name is Randy Tatton.
25 R-A-N-D-Y, T-A-T-T-O-N. And I am in support of Option
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 104 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 1. I am a retired coal miner, or semiretired, and glad
2 to have the opportunity to come here and speak to you
3 just a bit today.
4 I worked my entire career in the coal
5 industry. But for the last 15 years, due to some
6 business opportunities, I moved to Salt Lake City. So
7 trust me, I have seen the haze firsthand. I see it
8 every day. And it is frustrating. And I want to see it
9 cleaned up as well.
10 But let me tell you what's more frustrating to
11 me. I also live next door to Bingham High School. And
12 I don't know how many students they have, but it's
13 thousands, and trust me, I think every one of those kids
14 drive their car every day to school. They will drive
15 through haze you can't even see through to get their car
16 to school.
17 So why aren't we addressing those kind of
18 issues? And that's happening all over the country. Not
19 only in Salt Lake City, South Jordan, it happens in
20 California, and it's got to be a big root of the
21 problem.
22 Now, let me say that when I first retired,
23 about 10 years ago, in 2006, I did some consulting. And
24 I did a lot of work back east in the coal fields in the
25 coal industry. And haven't worked there for the last
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 105 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 two years. Why? Because the coal mines and the power
2 plants are shutting down.
3 Now, when you talk to the people back there,
4 nobody talks about pollution. They talk about the war
5 on coal and what it's done to it, and it has devastated.
6 And so, you know, what is the real agenda here?
7 Also, I worked for all of my career for
8 PacifiCorp. And I know that PacifiCorp is a good
9 environmental citizen. And I think the reason we don't
10 try as hard to address the automobiles and some of the
11 other pollutions, because it's so much easier to go for
12 a company like PacifiCorp.
13 Everybody here heard all the money they have
14 spent and the things they have done to improve. But
15 yet, it's easy just to say, let's add different controls
16 and all of this expensive equipment on the machines.
17 You know, when I was -- and this is me, and I know it
18 will never happen and I know it can't happen. But I
19 wish PacifiCorp just one day would say, we are going to
20 shut down half of our units. And when the lights start
21 going off, the computers, the TVs, a lot of priorities
22 in this room would probably change.
23 (Applause).
24 I only have 30 seconds. So again, I
25 appreciate the opportunity to be here, and I hope that
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 106 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 you will really consider all the facts. You know, I
2 lived for 15 years here in the valley. I lived the rest
3 of my life in Price, Utah. And incidentally I never saw
4 the haze, I never saw the pollution like I see here.
5 Now, my time has expired so I appreciate the opportunity
6 to be here.
7 (Applause).
8 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Craig
9 Hilton. Craig Hilton.
10 CRAIG HILTON: I appreciate the opportunity to
11 give you some thoughts today. My name is Craig Hilton.
12 C-R-A-I-G, H-I-L-T-O-N. And I want to dwell on some of
13 the points. Although there's many I agree with,
14 especially the wind and what -- I was the oldest boy in
15 a family of five. I understand, I understand well what
16 it is to be wrongly accused. And you know, if my
17 parents disciplined me for something I didn't do, it
18 didn't help the problem. And I think that's what we are
19 aiming at here, is we're just barking up the wrong tree.
20 No one appreciates more the clean air of
21 southern Utah than those of us who live there. I have
22 been a resident for 40 years and have observed times of
23 haze and clean air, and it's much better recently. But
24 the haze that I do experience, you can smell it. And
25 it's wood burning. It's coming from forest fires.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 107 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 I would just like to point out one thing that
2 hasn't been brought up yet. I have read some
3 publications recently where the Sierra Club and the
4 Wildlife Guardians have bragged about shutting down over
5 200 coal-fired power plants. And so to say that there
6 will be no economic effect, this is the very purpose of
7 what they are doing. Thank you.
8 (Applause).
9 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Hilton.
10 John Byers.
11 JOHN BYERS: My name is John Byers, J-O-H-N,
12 B-Y-E-R-S. I'm a taxpayer and a third generation coal
13 miner. I have lived in Utah for approximately 35 years
14 and lived about five out of the state. I love the state
15 of Utah. I support the state's Regional Haze SIP and
16 have observed no regional haze that can be attributed to
17 coal-fired power plants.
18 Most of the haze that I have seen has come
19 from forest fires, which I question whether we should
20 allow controlled burns and other things with the impacts
21 to the air. It's -- at times in southern Utah, it's
22 worse than being up here. And primarily from the forest
23 fires in California.
24 My family, grandparents, great grandparents
25 have lived in this area since 1980s or the late 1800s.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 108 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 My entire family has been supported by these power
2 plants, and these EPA-imposed rules impact my family's
3 ability to stay in the area.
4 I strongly support the state's implementation
5 plan and think that the EPA needs to provide some --
6 like one of the other individuals indicated, some
7 justification for why they are not looking at other
8 things that create this regional haze.
9 And when it's easy to say to implement 700
10 million dollars, but I know economics. I know how it
11 works. It's coming to me, my family. And through how
12 it's going to be paid and how it's going to be handled,
13 it's going to go to my children and they are going to
14 deal with this.
15 And if this 700 million dollars was going to
16 do something, and I had the scientists with the state of
17 Utah telling me that -- you know, they're smart
18 individuals as well, and I trust them a lot more than I
19 trust the EPA. And they are telling me that, you know,
20 the state's telling me that this plan isn't going to
21 affect -- is not or what the EPA wants to do will not
22 increase the air quality in the state of Utah, for 700
23 million dollars.
24 And I think, you know, if we were going to
25 spend 700 million dollars, what would we do with that
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 109 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 money to put it to a good use? Not just for emotional
2 views of what it's going to do for the environment.
3 Because I have lived in the area for, you
4 know, over 35 years and I have enjoyed recreating out
5 there, and I don't see the regional haze that they are
6 talking about. And I do want clean air in Utah. Thank
7 you.
8 (Applause).
9 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Byers.
10 Craig Brown. Mimi Trudeou, T-R-U-D-E-O-U.
11 MIMI TRUDEOU: My name is Mimi Trudeou. Do I
12 need to spell it? Okay.
13 I am speaking to you today as a Utah resident,
14 mother, taxpayer, and Rocky Mountain Power ratepayer.
15 In order to ensure the health and welfare of my family
16 and future generations, I am asking you to support the
17 Clean Parks Plan to industry-accepted pollution controls
18 that are already in use at more than 250 comparable
19 coal-burning plants throughout the country.
20 Two major issues are at stake. The first is
21 our health. The Hunter and Huntington plants are
22 responsible for 40 percent of the dangerous nitrogen
23 oxide pollution emitted by the electricity sector. This
24 pollution significantly compromises and endangers our
25 health.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 110 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Given the fact that the proposed pollution
2 controls would cut emissions by 76 percent, and
3 neighboring states have already taken meaningful steps
4 to reduce these dangerous and harmful emissions, it is
5 incomprehensible to me that the government of Utah is
6 fighting this. Why is the health of Utah residents
7 worth less than the people in Arizona, Colorado and New
8 Mexico?
9 The second issue involves the economy.
10 Communities across Utah depend on tourism and the
11 outdoor recreational industries as a source of
12 livelihood and prosperity. In 2014 alone, over 10
13 million visitors traveled to visit our national parks,
14 generating 730 million dollars for Utah's economy. The
15 tourism industry supports about 132,000 jobs, or about
16 one out every 10 jobs in the state. It is a major
17 sector of the economy, and it is seeing the highest
18 year-to-year growth rate.
19 My family and friends have been visiting Utah
20 for over 30 years. They remember crystal days and
21 visibility for miles. These days are fewer and farther
22 between. The mountains are often now lost in the haze.
23 According to monitoring by National Park
24 Service researchers, the visibility at Arches and
25 Canyonlands is impaired by human-caused haze 83 percent
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 111 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of the time. Does the government really want to risk
2 this unique and precious asset to toxic, haze-causing
3 pollution that could easily be controlled in
4 cost-effective ways nationwide?
5 People have lost trust in government agencies.
6 Even the EPA is perceived as a captured agency.
7 Demanding that Hunter and Huntington coal plants be
8 upgraded and retrofitted with selective catalytic
9 reduction pollution controls would help restore faith in
10 the government.
11 Coal is an inefficient, old, dirty, unhealthy
12 technology that could be significantly improved by
13 coming up to the best industry operating standards. We
14 need to be transitioning to Utah's economic strengths
15 and future rather than clinging to the past. If
16 necessary, I am willing to pay more in utilities rates
17 to ensure the best for the environment, our health and
18 the economy. Thank you.
19 (Applause).
20 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, if we can, Sam
21 Schoppe, S-C-H-O-P-P-E.
22 SAM SCHOPPE: Schoppe.
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
24 Mr. Schoppe.
25 SAM SCHOPPE: My name is Sam Schoppe, S-A-M
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 112 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 S-C-H-O-P-P-E. I appreciate the opportunity to be here
2 today and speak on behalf of coal miners, and I want to
3 thank everybody that made the trip up here today. I
4 know a lot of people carpooled up here.
5 As I drove into the valley, the ironic thing
6 is, I look over to my right on the freeway, and 90
7 percent of the cars have one person in it. Why don't we
8 address that?
9 I am a life-long resident of Utah, live in
10 Sanpete County, Utah, Spring City in particular. And I
11 enjoy the outdoors and the national parks just as much
12 as anybody in this room. I have floated almost every
13 river, rock climb, recreate and I love clean air. But
14 we're going to lose a lot of jobs if this happens here.
15 I have got a solution. We're all concerned
16 about the national parks and seeing through them, and we
17 have already mentioned how much profit they bring in.
18 Let's let them pay for it.
19 I want to ask everybody here today, how many
20 of you got up this morning and flipped on a light
21 switch? How many of you took a hot shower? Okay. How
22 many woke up to a warm home this morning? Those are the
23 things we need to be thinking about. Thank you for your
24 time.
25 (Applause).
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 113 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Dr. Robert
2 Nohavec. Robert Nohavec. Nicholas Nielsen.
3 NICHOLAS NIELSEN: My name is Nicholas
4 Nielsen. N-I-C-H-O-L-A-S, N-I-E-L-S-E-N. I was born
5 and raised in Carbon County, and as long as I can
6 remember, I have loved being outside. I have loved
7 playing around in the hills, and I can't ever remember
8 any haze other than when there has been controlled
9 burns, forest fires, that type of stuff.
10 I disagree with the EPA making additions to
11 the approved SIP. It's surprising how many people have
12 got up here and said that they agree with retrofitting
13 the power plants with items to control the haze. But
14 they are agreeing with Option 1.
15 I disagree with the EPA supporting documents
16 that demonstrate additional changes are needed based on
17 the CALPUFF modeling system, aside from the state's
18 previously approved model. The justification for the
19 additions used many assumptions, and the EPA's
20 interpretation of the results demonstrate miniscule
21 benefit.
22 Omitting important information from the model
23 such as location of highways, mobile sources and
24 populated areas relative to national parks, supports
25 faulty findings and promotes an agenda directed toward
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 114 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 coal-fired power.
2 The primary document itself, in Section 5.1,
3 paragraph 2, admits but fails to include in the modeling
4 that, quote, "We further propose to recognize that not
5 all pollutants impact visibility equally, and that the
6 total emissions reductions of all pollutants is not
7 necessarily a direct indicator of whether the BART
8 alternative or the BART benchmark will achieve greater
9 reasonable progress." End quote.
10 The EPA's interjection to the state's SIP is
11 focussed on the wrong contributor. The model's results
12 demonstrate a change in measurable haze at the power
13 plants, but provides no commonly known scale to
14 demonstrate the overall reduction in the regional haze.
15 Justification for additional restrictions have
16 been primarily based from these assumptions and these
17 models. No data or improvements in measurable haze has
18 been provided to the public from the Carbon plant
19 shutting down to drive additional restrictions.
20 Energy has made central Utah. Starving a
21 community of jobs, affordable power and a sense of pride
22 in an industry is too great sacrifice for little proven
23 improvement.
24 I fully support the already proved SIP in its
25 entirety. I disprove of the EPA restricting the state's
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 115 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 level -- the state level government's decision making
2 and forcing additional financial burdens to the people
3 in Utah industries. Thank you.
4 (Applause).
5 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
6 Mr. Nielsen. Wendell Kutz.
7 WENDELL KUTZ: I'm going to relinquish my
8 time.
9 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Chad Stone.
10 Chad Stone.
11 CHAD STONE: Right here. All right. My name
12 is Chad Stone, S-T-O-N-E. Thanks for the opportunity to
13 speak today. I was born -- excuse me. I was born,
14 pretty much raised in Carbon County. I moved several
15 times, and I tend to move back. I moved once to join
16 the army and another time to study at the University of
17 Utah.
18 I graduated with a bachelor's of science in
19 environmental and sustainable sciences. I was -- so
20 long story short, I care about my community. Yeah. I
21 care about local interests. I think that local
22 interests are looked at best by local jurisdiction. I
23 think that Utah State Department of Air Quality has set
24 a good standard, the SIP, and I am for that. Basically,
25 yeah. I appreciate your time. I am for that SIP.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 116 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Thanks.
2 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, Scott Steinberg.
3 Scott Steinberg. Gregg Galecki.
4 GREGG GALECKI: Here. My name is Greg
5 Galecki. G-R-E-G-G, G-A-L-E-C-K-I. A lot of things
6 have already been brought up. So I'll try to be brief.
7 Primarily I have worked in industry and the regulatory
8 world for over 30 years. I bring that up because I am
9 also a professional geologist and environmental
10 engineer.
11 So I want to talk about the Clean Air Act.
12 From the specifics of it, when we talk about the package
13 that was -- that we are looking at today, part of the
14 Clean Air Act, the purpose of it is to have reasonable
15 progress towards having natural visibility goal. Along
16 those lines, I think that the state has demonstrated
17 over the last -- since 2003, they have had six updates
18 to their State Implementation Plan.
19 So you look at that. It's saying that it's a
20 dynamic plan. It's not stationary. It's not static.
21 It's always changing. They are looking at what the best
22 technologies are, and they are trying to improve that.
23 The other part, using technology. The things
24 that they implemented, they have had improvements in
25 SO2, in NOx, PM10. They have showed that through
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 117 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 that -- the modeling that they have done with it. The
2 state trying to be prudent in engineering and pragmatic
3 in their approach is that they have -- their own
4 modeling says they have looked at the SCR technologies.
5 But they wouldn't have benefits that's necessary or the
6 types of improvements that we want.
7 I fully support the State's SIP in its
8 entirety, and I hope the EPA will look at that, and then
9 let's see. And the cost of compliance, that's another
10 part of the Clean Air Act, subpart -- Section 169,
11 subpart 3. When you look at the cost of implementation,
12 700 million dollars, for a small, small benefit, what's
13 going on isn't good use of the state funds, and that's
14 why I support the State plan in its entirety. Thanks.
15 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Craig
16 Brown.
17 CRAIG BROWN: Good afternoon. I am an
18 engineer who has spent my entire career in the energy
19 industry. I grew up in rural Utah and have spent much
20 of my time recreating in the Class 1 areas discussed in
21 this action. I have backpacked into wilderness areas
22 and visited several national parks each year.
23 I value clean air, magnificent views and
24 nonpolluted air sheds. I feel that being a part of both
25 these worlds is not a conflict but rather compliment
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 118 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 each other very well. Loving the outdoors heightens my
2 awareness and environmental sensitivity, and increases
3 my resolve to create a workplace that is considerate of
4 the impact it has.
5 The proposed State Implementation Plan and
6 Federal Implementation Plan are forced creations from
7 the EPA's Regional Haze Rule as a method of improving
8 visibility in Class 1 areas of Utah. This rule does not
9 consider actual environmental or personal health effects
10 as a result of NOx, SO2 or PM10.
11 Essentially what the EPA tells us by enacting
12 this plan is that they do not truly care about the
13 underlying health of the people it reports to, or the
14 environment it supposedly protects. And are in reality
15 willing to spend the hard-earned money of the citizens
16 of Utah just to improve the visibility of the properties
17 they control.
18 The proposed plan will require to spend nearly
19 700 million dollars. Rocky Mountain Power, the owner of
20 the power plants in question, has a customer base of
21 approximately 83,000 households. The Federal
22 Implementation Plan, if forced on us, will cost each of
23 these households $8,434. This hurts every citizen of
24 that system, especially the low and fixed income
25 families. And for what?
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 119 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 The EPA states in their own plans that there
2 will be less than one deciview on average of
3 improvement, which is not even noticeable to the human
4 eye. The bottom line is the federal government is
5 forcing the rate payers of Utah to pay a great cost for
6 something that we cannot even see.
7 As an outdoor enthusiast and someone whose
8 livelihood is based on energy, I feel that something
9 does need to be done about pollution in this state, but
10 not just in Class 1 areas, not just for visibility and
11 not at a cost of $8,434 per household.
12 If this plan had any chance of marked
13 improvement and was aimed at the health and wellbeing of
14 our environment and our people, I would support it. But
15 because the benefit does not match the cost and comes at
16 the expense of so many of us, I highly encourage the EPA
17 to approve the State Implementation Plan in its
18 entirety.
19 (Applause).
20 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Jeremiah
21 Armstrong.
22 JEREMIAH ARMSTRONG: My name's Jeremiah
23 Armstrong. I'm an environmental engineer. I've got a
24 bachelor's and master's degree in wildlife and wildlands
25 management. I'm currently employed as an environmental
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 120 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 engineer. I have a bachelor's and master's degree in
2 wildlife and wild lands conservation. And I want to say
3 first of all, that I support, fully support and
4 encourage the approval of the State of Utah's SIP plan
5 as presented and as partially implemented.
6 Second, the EPA's insistence on installation
7 of SCR technology at the Huntington and Hunter plants is
8 essentially an implementation of both options that have
9 been presented, as the plants have already implemented
10 the state's requirement and have seen significant and
11 sufficient reductions in PM10, SO2 and NOx.
12 Third, I would like to point out, and get into
13 the weeds a little bit, that the main justification for
14 the EPA's proposed takeover of the Regional Haze Plan
15 from the state is based on the 98 percentile deciview
16 impact at the Class 1 air sheds in question. This was
17 the only measure which the state's plan didn't show
18 significant improvement over the EPA's BART baseline.
19 Now, deciview is new to me until a few days
20 ago. But a deciview is a unit of measure of the
21 transmission of light through the air. One deciview
22 correlates to the relevant change the human eye can
23 actually perceive. Using information provided in the
24 docket folder for this proposed action, which is tables
25 H.5 through H.8, six of the nine Class 1 areas have
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 121 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 substantially less than 1.0 deciview model improvement
2 on the worst of days.
3 At Canyonlands, the most impacted area in the
4 model, the sum of the model improvements for all the
5 proposed power units is only 2.3 deciviews on the very
6 worst day of the year. These occur primarily in the
7 winter months when park visitorship is fairly low.
8 In the EPA's proposed action, which is
9 installing SCR technology at the Hunter and Huntington
10 plants, the average improvement using the BART baseline
11 over the state's BART alternative, is a paltry 0.14
12 deciviews, .14 of what the human eye can see.
13 We are asked to foot the bill for 700 million
14 dollars for a assumed modeled improvement that is not
15 even perceptible to the human eye, and has zero impact
16 on human health.
17 Again, I recommend and fully support the
18 state's SIP plan and recommend that the EPA focus on
19 issues that actually impact the health and welfare of
20 the citizens of the United States, rather than push
21 political agenda. Thank you.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Jamie Riccobono.
24 JAMIE RICCOBONO: Good afternoon. My name is
25 Jamie Riccobono, J-A-M-I-E, R-I-C-C-O-B-O-N-O. I am the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 122 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 executive director for the American Lung Association in
2 Utah, and thank you for this opportunity.
3 I am here today to testify against the current
4 state plan and in favor of revising it to include
5 pollution control measures for Rocky Mountain Power's
6 Hunter and Huntington coal-fired power plants. These
7 pollution control measures will have the greatest
8 benefit for overall public health. And it isn't just
9 NOx that we're worried about.
10 The American Lung Association in Utah works
11 very hard to improve lung health and prevent lung
12 disease. And we know that climate change can harm
13 public health through degraded air quality, wild fires,
14 drought, heat waves and more.
15 We also know that climate change worsens the
16 burden of the 57,800 children and 177,000 adults that
17 have asthma in Utah. According to the 2015 state of the
18 air report for the American Lung Association, the Salt
19 Lake County area ranked at the seventh most polluted
20 city in the country for short-term particle pollution,
21 followed by Logan, Utah in the eighth position. Uintah
22 County ranked seventh most polluted county for ozone,
23 and Duchesne, Utah, ranked as the 15th most polluted
24 county for ozone.
25 Ozone pollution, also known as smog, is
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 123 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 dangerous and sometimes even lethal. It can send people
2 to the emergency room and even cause premature death.
3 High ozone levels can impact anyone's health, but some
4 groups are particularly vulnerable to the health harms
5 from ozone, including children, the elderly, people with
6 asthma and other lung diseases, people with heart
7 disease and people who work and exercise outdoors, as
8 well as people who have low incomes.
9 Low income communities have suffered the
10 consequences of pollution exposures from our nation's
11 coal-fired power plants for far too long. They have
12 lived near these plants where they have breathed the
13 worse pollution, including toxic emissions like arsenic,
14 lead, and carcinogens like benzene spewed into their
15 air.
16 They are suffering more from what climate
17 change brings since research shows that air pollution
18 disproportionately harms poorer humans, in part because
19 they are more likely to have diseases like asthma.
20 Public health is our number one priority.
21 Everyone deserves the right to breathe clean air.
22 Everyone. That is why the American Lung Association is
23 in favor of revising the state plan to include pollution
24 control measures for Rocky Mountain Power's Hunter and
25 Huntington coal-fired power plants. Thank you.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 124 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 (Applause).
2 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Melanie McCoard.
3 MELANIE McCOARD: I'd like to talk to you a
4 little bit about process. I am from Provo. Provo has
5 its own municipal power company. We are a member of
6 UMPA, U-M-P-A, Utah Municipal Power Agency, the largest
7 municipal power agency in the state. UMPA owns part of
8 the Hunter plant, a small interest in it. We also buy a
9 great deal of our power from both Deseret Transmission
10 and also PacifiCorp.
11 UMPA is the agency which is tasked to keep the
12 residents who use their power, UMPA's power, informed
13 about what's going on. That never happens.
14 UMPA recently passed an IRP for five years.
15 They had a public hearing about the kind of money that
16 was going to be spent improving both the Hunter plants
17 and the Bonanza plant out in the Uintah Basin, and as
18 far as I know, I am the only person in all of Utah
19 Valley that read it, that IRP. UMPA's policy is to fly
20 under the radar.
21 You have got a group of citizens here who are
22 very willing and ready and eager to participate. But
23 there are hundreds of thousands of energy users in Utah
24 Valley, the cities of Provo, Spanish Fork, Salem, Nephi,
25 Manti and Levan, who buy power through UMPA and have
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 125 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 virtually no say in how that money is spent or the kind
2 of policy decisions that are made.
3 The mayor of Provo, Mayor John Curtis, is the
4 board of directors -- is the chairman of the board of
5 directors of UMPA. He is in a position to have some
6 policy making power. But we don't get any press
7 coverage. We don't get any information. We don't get
8 any notification that there is public hearing occurring.
9 And so the process that you are hearing today,
10 there are a lot of coal miners and there are a lot of
11 environmentalists, but you are not hearing from the rank
12 and file energy users. Especially not in Utah County.
13 Especially not in those seven cities. Because we depend
14 totally upon that agency, UMPA, to inform us.
15 They are supposed to be doing public outreach.
16 Never happens. So I very strongly encourage and
17 recommend that you hold additional hearings in Utah
18 County. I know it's hard for you to come from wherever
19 it is that you are located. But you need to come down
20 and hold an additional hearing in Provo especially for
21 UMPA users, power users.
22 We own a publicly held power company. We own
23 an interest in the Hunter plant, and we should have much
24 more opportunity. There are two of us, I believe, here
25 from Provo today. Please give us an opportunity.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 126 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Please come. Thanks.
2 (Applause).
3 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
4 Ms. McCoard. Joe Brinton.
5 JOE BRINTON: My name is Joe Brinton. J-O-E,
6 B-R-I-N-T-O-N. I come here today representing the coal
7 industry, but I want to speak more on behalf of what I
8 feel as a citizen and as a father of six children. I'll
9 start with a story of my 10-year-old son.
10 He is in the cub scouts, and we were talking
11 recently for a citizenship badge about the rule of law.
12 And the example I used is, if you are going 35 miles
13 down -- 35 miles an hour down a road that's posted 35,
14 and a policeman pulls you over, he doesn't have the
15 right to give you a speeding ticket for obeying the law
16 if he interprets the law different than is written.
17 What it has to do with today's discussion is
18 that if the state of Utah is complying with the law,
19 they should be allowed to comply with the law. The rule
20 of law says that we need to be able to depend upon the
21 laws that are written and not take them as willy-nilly
22 interpretations of that law.
23 I'll tell a second story about my son. He
24 always asks for more. If we give him one jelly bean, he
25 asks for another. And if we give him yet another he
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 127 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 will always ask for another. And finally we say, "When
2 is it going to stop?"
3 I bring this up because this has a lot to do
4 with a lot of the recent environmental action against
5 the fossil fuel industry. If we give a little, they ask
6 for more. If they give a little more, they continue to
7 ask for more. The question is, when is it going to
8 stop? At what point will we satisfy their requirements?
9 And I urge you to consider that, because I
10 think there may not be an answer to that. I think there
11 may not be a final point that they are trying to get at.
12 The third story I will tell about my son is,
13 he always thinks he has the answer to everything. And I
14 warn him that if the answer is easy, if somebody's told
15 you the answer is really easy, it's just that simple,
16 you might ought to double-think that. You might ought
17 to question their logic.
18 If haze reduction were just as easy as putting
19 in SCRs, we'd have done it a long time ago. If it were
20 just that effective as we've heard it said, that if we
21 put in SCR and all the haze would be gone from the
22 national parks forever, we would have done it a long
23 time ago. It's not as simple as that, of course.
24 So I urge all of you who are in the position
25 of considering this, to keep those points in mind that I
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 128 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 advise my son. That it's -- if someone tells you that
2 it's a simple answer, you probably ought to double-check
3 that.
4 So in case it wasn't made clear, I support the
5 State's Implementation Plan, and I encourage you to do
6 the same. Thank you.
7 (Applause).
8 HEARING OFFICER: Matt Romsell, It's R-O-M, I
9 think it's an S, E-L-L. Matt Romsell. Geneva Lawrence.
10 Geneva Lawrence. Jim Ireland.
11 RICH MYLOTT: He's on his way in. Jim's here.
12 JIM IRELAND: Hi. Good afternoon and thank
13 you for allowing us the opportunity to address this
14 important issue. My name is Jim Ireland. I'm the Utah
15 State Court agent for the National Park Service and the
16 superintendent of the Timpanogos Cave National Monument.
17 In June of 2015, the National Park Service submitted
18 extensive formal comments and analysis in this matter.
19 We appreciate your consideration of them as you
20 carefully consider Utah's proposed State Implementation
21 Plan.
22 This is a complex legal and technical subject.
23 I have great appreciation for the challenges you face,
24 and the EPA, the State of Utah and the industry for that
25 matter, addressing this problem of regional haze. As
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 129 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 the previous speaker said, he took the words out of my
2 mouth, if there were a simple and easy solution, we
3 would have done it long ago.
4 Since 1916, a hundred years this August, the
5 National Park Service has been dedicated to the mission
6 given to us by the American people, including everyone
7 in this room, to protect these areas unimpaired, for the
8 enjoyment of this and future generations.
9 Congress fully recognized and amplified the
10 significance of these areas in 1977 when it amended the
11 Clean Air Act to prior program for protecting
12 visibility, specifically in national parks and
13 wilderness areas.
14 Early parks were often compared to islands
15 protected by their isolation. But today we recognize
16 that these precious areas are constantly impacted by
17 things outside of our boundaries and our control,
18 notably for today's purposes, air.
19 The EPA in this matter absolutely shares the
20 mission of the National Park Service of protecting our
21 national parks unimpaired for future generations.
22 Clearly, this is not just a technical engineering
23 problem. Any approach to reducing haze will have
24 social, political and economic implications, as
25 evidenced by all the people in the room and outside the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 130 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 room.
2 So we know that our people will speak to
3 public health concerns, technical analyses of the
4 proposals or other perspectives.
5 I would like to briefly address parks, tourism
6 and economic impacts associated with this issue. Others
7 have spoken to this already, but tourism is a
8 significant contributor to the overall economy of Utah.
9 In 2013, tourists did spend 7.5 billion dollars in the
10 state of Utah, resulting in 1 billion dollars of
11 estimated revenue at the state and local tax levels, 3.7
12 billion in total towards related wages and the
13 employment of approximately 132,000 people.
14 The National Park Service estimates that in
15 2014, Utah park visitors alone spent approximately 730
16 million in our local gateway communities directly
17 supporting 12,600 jobs and 376 million in labor income.
18 That year saw 10.5 million recreational visits in Utah's
19 national park.
20 But this past year, 2015, that number grew by
21 12 percent with a record breaking 11,800,000
22 recreational visitors. Increased visitation will only
23 increase this economic impact.
24 It's notable that much of this increase can be
25 directly attributed to the recent magnified marketing
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 131 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 campaign by Utah State Office of Tourism. The state has
2 brilliantly capitalized on the scenic beauty of its
3 natural parks in this highly successful, award-winning
4 campaign with images of Delicate Arch and other iconic
5 Utah park scenes everywhere from magazine ads, to the
6 sides of taxicabs. This scenery clearly has economic
7 value which must be considered in the evaluation of
8 these proposals.
9 I am joined today by superintendents of four
10 of the five parks. They will speak to their parks
11 individually and the specific impact of this proposal on
12 those parks.
13 I know that the State of Utah shares our
14 concern over air quality in general. It's already been
15 identified as one of the key issues in the 2016
16 legislative session which opened yesterday. It only
17 makes sense for the tourism industry and the agencies
18 that promote it to do everything possible to reduce haze
19 and increase visibility of our beautiful scenery.
20 The EPA must pursue the course of action with
21 the greatest reasonable progress possible to this end.
22 In fact, the EPA notes in its overview of the proposed
23 action in the December 16 Federal Register letter,
24 "Several of the metrics in the state analyses do not
25 appear to support a conclusion that the BART alternative
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 132 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 achieves greater reasonable progress."
2 I respectfully support your proposal to
3 disapprove the BART alternative and go with Option 2 if
4 that what is what your analysis truly finds provides the
5 greatest protection for our national parks. Thank you.
6 (Applause).
7 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Fred Armstrong.
8 FRED ARMSTRONG: Good afternoon. Thank you
9 for the opportunity to speak. My name is Fred
10 Armstrong, Division Chief for Natural and Cultural
11 Resources At Zion National Park.
12 Zion was the first national park unit
13 established in the state of Utah, over 100 years ago,
14 initially as national monument and later elevated to
15 national park status. Excerpts from legislation cite
16 that park lands were established "for the benefit and
17 enjoyment of the people," and speak of the superlative,
18 "brilliantly colored strata and remarkable canyons with
19 highly ornate and beautifully colored walls."
20 Regional haze threatens the scenic values and
21 the associated visitor experiences that are fundamental
22 to the establishment and purposes of the park. On clear
23 days, visitors at high elevation viewpoints are not only
24 rewarded with stunning contrasts in colors and textures
25 as they peer into the canyons, but land forms over 70
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 133 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 miles in distant on the Colorado Plateau are
2 discernible.
3 On moderately hazy days, hikers to the popular
4 destination of Observation Point on the rim of Zion
5 Canyon can barely see the outline of Canyon Mountain, a
6 mere 13 miles in distant, while the intensity of the hue
7 in canyon walls is diminished to drab oranges and grays.
8 Air quality monitoring at Zion from the year
9 2000 to the present indicates that visibility and
10 clarity of distant scenic views are impaired by
11 human-induced haze approximately 80 percent of the time,
12 as compared to the annual average level of
13 natural-induced haze.
14 Diminished visibility does not equate solely
15 to the spoiled vistas, but the altered air chemistry
16 includes elevated ozone, which damages sensitive plants
17 such as quaking Aspen forests, and nitrogen oxide that
18 causes nitrogen deposition to soils. This atmospheric
19 nitrogen deposition stimulates growth of nonnative
20 invasive grasses that can contribute to the catastrophic
21 wildfires that we have experienced in recent years and
22 also allows them to out compete native vegetation.
23 Airborne toxins including mercury are
24 deposited with rain and snow and are then accumulated in
25 the organisms in the area's reproductive and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 134 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 neurological systems.
2 From 2008 to 2012, a USGS sampling in Zion of
3 speckled dace, a small native fish consumed as prey,
4 showed mercury concentrations that exceed levels
5 recommended for human consumption. And at this level
6 they are considered unhealthful for fish and wildlife
7 that prey on them.
8 The state of Utah clearly values and derives
9 economic benefit from the millions of domestic and
10 international visitors who come to the area to
11 experience our world class wonders. More than 3.6
12 million visitors were drawn to Zion in 2015. Visitors
13 expect to immerse themselves in the iconic landscapes
14 promoted in coffee table books, travel posters and
15 calendar photographs. These visitors contribute 233
16 million dollars annually to the local economy around
17 Zion National Park.
18 The managers at Zion National Park urge the
19 EPA to take measures to ensure that Utah's regional haze
20 State Implementation Plan be one that's to remedy
21 existing visibility impairment and restore air quality
22 for the benefit of local residents, park visitors and
23 the protection of park fundamental resources and values.
24 Thank you.
25 (Applause).
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 135 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
2 Mr. Armstrong. Leah McGinnis.
3 LEAH McGINNIS: Hi. I'm Leah McGinnis. I am
4 Superintendent at Capitol Reef National Park. Capitol
5 Reef National Park has been described in many different
6 ways. However, none are as eloquent as geologist
7 Clarence Dutton, whose first impression from atop
8 Boulder Mountain overlooking the valley in 1877 were
9 described as follows:
10 "It is a sublime panorama. The heart of inner
11 plateau country is spread out before us in a bird's eye
12 view. It is a maze of the cliffs and terraces, red and
13 white domes, rock platforms gashed with profound
14 canyons, burning plains barren even of sage -- all
15 glowing with bright color and flooded with blazing
16 sunlight. It is the extreme of desolation, the blankest
17 of solitude, a superlative desert."
18 The Capitol Reef National Park is a geologic
19 park with striking features of scientific interest
20 including the scenic Waterpocket Fold. Expanding for
21 nearly 80 miles, the Waterpocket Fold is recognized as
22 the largest exposed monocline in North America.
23 This and the other remarkable geologic
24 features and formations of Capitol Reef National Park,
25 such as the Temple of the Sun and Moon in Cathedral
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 136 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Valley, are widely recognized for their scenic value.
2 Visitors often ask where they can go to get the best
3 view of these iconic features as the ruggedness of the
4 country prevents travel through much of the area.
5 Visitors to some of the park's scenic
6 overlooks are astonished to clearly see the La Sal or
7 Abajo Mountains over a hundred miles distant. To be
8 able to see such a distance with clarity is an
9 exceedingly rare experience for most visitors, and it
10 can be an intensely emotional experience to realize how
11 much the boundaries of the world have expanded.
12 Last year 988,516 visitors traveled to Capitol
13 Reef National Park to experience what might be an
14 unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience for some.
15 This is an 18 percent increase over previous years'
16 visitations, for a third year in a row, and we certainly
17 expect to see the same increase in 2016 as we celebrate
18 the National Park Service's 100th anniversary.
19 Unfortunately, monitoring data indicates the
20 visibility and the clarity of distant views are impaired
21 by anthropogenic haze approximately 79 percent of the
22 time, relative to the annual average level of natural
23 haze. 79 percent of the time our visitors do not
24 experience those extraordinary views to which clear and
25 clean air is essential.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 137 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Capitol Reef National Park is a Class 1 area
2 under the Clean Air Act and must be managed responsibly
3 to protect air quality related values, including
4 visibility. Clean, clear air contributes to the
5 brilliant night skies that make Capitol Reef National
6 Park an international Dark Sky Park.
7 Capitol Reef offers a wilderness opportunity
8 in 82 percent of the parks 241,000 acres. As emphasized
9 in the Wilderness Act of 1964, wilderness values and
10 purposes, "shall be devoted to the public purposes of
11 recreational, scenic, scientific, educational,
12 conservational and historical use."
13 Expansive vistas extending to far horizons,
14 vivid night skies, superb scenic views and exceptional
15 wilderness experience; clean, clear air is paramount to
16 each of these, and we owe it our visiting public.
17 Therefore, Capitol Reef National Park supports
18 installation of additional NOx controls. Thank you very
19 much.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you Miss
22 McGinnis. Kate Cannon.
23 KATE CANNON: Hello. I'm Kate Cannon. I am
24 the superintendent for the National Parks Service at
25 Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and I'd like to
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 138 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 speak today simply about the essential role of the
2 clean, clear air at the national parks, particularly to
3 Arches and to Canyonlands National Parks, which on a
4 clear day offer some of the most spectacular scenic
5 views in the country, and which are now among those in
6 Utah most adversely affected by regional haze.
7 Arches National Park offers sweeping views of
8 striking colorful geological features in the foreground,
9 against the towering La Sal Mountains in the distance.
10 A scene full of color and contrast, but now, often
11 fading behind a gray veil of haze.
12 Canyonlands National Park offers stunning long
13 views across astonishing, varied and colorful landscapes
14 on all sides, which now fade and disappear behind the
15 haze. Currently visitors to Arches and to Canyonlands
16 see hazy views to some degree much of the time, we
17 estimate perhaps over 80 percent of the time.
18 Modeling indicates that NOx emissions from the
19 Hunter and the Huntington power plants cause that
20 impairment about 20 percent of the time it exists, and
21 contribute to that impairment most of the rest of the
22 time.
23 So looking to the future, with the
24 installation of selective catalyst reduction on the four
25 units of Hunter and Huntington, we would expect to see
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 139 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 substantial improvement, also shown in the modeling,
2 with visibility impairment reduced by about 60 percent
3 on the worst days, and significantly reduced on most if
4 not all of the other days.
5 But at what cost? If we look at what costs
6 surrounding states have undertaken and consider to be
7 cost effective for similar installations, the cost of
8 SCR for Hunter and Huntington are similar to those costs
9 of the surrounding states. And those states found those
10 costs justified in the light of the substantial
11 visibility benefits they offered.
12 SCR at Hunter and Huntington would provide
13 substantial visibility benefits at a reasonable cost,
14 while the proposed alternative provides no improvement
15 over the current conditions. Visibility impairment
16 would be reduced by 60 percent with SCR installation on
17 those worst days compared to no improvement at all with
18 the proposed alternative.
19 We have a chance here to clear up the air for
20 all of us, and to restore lost visibility to Utah's
21 national parks. So we recommend that EPA take that
22 step. Require installation of NOx reduction at Hunter
23 and Huntington and clear the air. Thank you.
24 (Applause).
25 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Mr. Parkins, do you
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 140 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 want -- you deferred. Would you still like to speak?
2 RICK PARKINS: I'd like to speak before five
3 if I could.
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Yes. So why don't you
5 come up now.
6 RICK PARKINS: My name is Rick Parkins.
7 That's R-I-C-K, P-A-R-K-I-N-S. I'd like to thank you
8 for the opportunity to address you today and I
9 appreciate the chance to be included in your decision.
10 I want you to know right up front that I
11 support the implementation of the state SIP, without
12 rejecting any portion of the plan.
13 I work in the coal industry, and have been
14 proud to do my part to provide coal to these powers
15 plants, and reliable low cost energy to PacifiCorp's
16 customers. I worked with some of the safest and most
17 productive coal miners in the world, and they are people
18 that you can trust. When they say something, and they
19 agree to something, you can count on them to follow
20 through. I hope that the EPA would aspire to those
21 values.
22 My children live and work in Utah County, in
23 the growing information technology sector on Wasatch
24 Front. I believe that the growth in this field is
25 directly associated with reliable, low cost electricity
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 141 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 available on the Wasatch Front.
2 Increased electricity costs will increase the
3 possibility that these jobs will no longer be as likely
4 to stay in the region. Big data is big energy. The NSA
5 facility did not locate at Point of the Mountains
6 because of the available resources from the colleges.
7 It located there because that is a low cost area for
8 electric power.
9 So it's not just the coal miners of Carbon and
10 Emery County and Sevier County that are impacted by this
11 decision.
12 I have enjoyed the beautiful vistas and clear
13 air of eastern Utah over the past 30 years. And I have
14 always felt that the Huntington power station has a
15 remarkably small impact on the environment.
16 Have you been there? Have you seen it? In
17 the summer there are many days that no plume of any sort
18 is visible. In the winter, it appears to me that the
19 only plume there is steam, as was evidenced by the
20 picture of the Hunter power station. Huntington should
21 be the poster child for environmentally friendly power
22 as it currently stands.
23 I drive I-70 probably more than anybody in
24 this room. I am back and forth on that highway all the
25 time. The vista of the La Sals is something that I
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 142 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 greatly appreciate. I have never driven that highway
2 when I felt that vista was impacted in any way by the
3 Huntington and Hunter power stations.
4 I have seen the influence of fires in
5 California. I have seen the influence of what I believe
6 is pollution from LA, but I have not seen the impact
7 from those power stations.
8 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Your time has expired.
9 RICK PARKINS: Oh, I'm sorry. I have one
10 quick thing. I support the State Implementation Plan as
11 submitted. I believe it will achieve the reductions
12 required in the federal plan. Forcing the federal plan
13 on the state without consideration of the state sounds
14 to me like it's autocratic and insensitive.
15 And forcing the PacifiCorp rate payers to pay
16 700 million dollars without any real benefit seems
17 inappropriate. 700 million dollars is a lot of money to
18 those of us here. It may not be a lot to the federal
19 government. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: The next person wrote
22 down Jordan F. Is Jordan F here? Jordan just last name
23 F initial.
24 Ronnie Derasary. Ronnie Derasary. If you're
25 leaving, you need to leave quietly please. We're still
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 143 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 in session here. Keith Brody, Brady. B-R-A-D-Y maybe.
2 Keith Brady.
3 KEITH BRADY: It is Brady, B-R-A-D-Y.
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Sorry about that.
5 KEITH BRADY: All right. My name is Keith
6 Brady. I'm a commissioner with Emery County. And I
7 support the state's implementation plan in its entirety
8 and ask you to do the same. According to the SIP Rocky
9 Mountain Power acted in good faith and has met or
10 exceeded the reduction of particulate matter, SOx and
11 NOx. They have complied, according to the SIP,
12 implemented BART bag houses for particulate matters,
13 scrubbers for SOx, and alternative methods that meet or
14 exceed BART levels for NOx with low NOx burners and
15 over-fire air.
16 Rocky Mountain Power spent about 500 million
17 dollars to meet or exceed the requirements of the
18 particulate matter for SOx and NOx emissions. And the
19 cost to implement the SCRs in the five units is
20 estimated to be 700 million dollars. The cost is always
21 passed to the rate payers.
22 The further reduction of NOx with the SCRs
23 would not make a visible difference. I have visited the
24 plants and seen the operations and met with the
25 employees. They have clean working environment, and the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 144 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 employees seem to love their jobs.
2 The economic impact to the Hunter and
3 Huntington power plants is a large portion of our
4 economy in Emery County. The economic impact Rocky
5 Mountain Power has had to the economy in direct and
6 indirect jobs is about 800 plus jobs. They have been a
7 good partner in the area. I mention this because of the
8 direct and indirect cost to the power plants. Coal is
9 still the lowest cost producer of energy in our area.
10 According to the regional health department
11 there have been no deleterious health effects to the
12 citizens of Emery County based -- by these power plants
13 comparing to surrounding counties.
14 Due to Emery County having these power plants
15 located within its borders, it would seem logical Emery
16 County would have the highest haze levels from these
17 power plants. But our blue skies would say otherwise.
18 The further you get in the power plant, the more
19 disbursed the emissions become.
20 There is no evidence. There is only
21 speculation, model, and anecdotal information that the
22 haze over these Class 1 areas comes from Huntington and
23 Hunter power plants. It seems the majority of the
24 numbers of the worst haze areas over the Class 1 areas
25 last year were due to forest fires from California and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 145 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 government control burns in Utah.
2 If those areas want to reduce haze, they
3 should look at themselves with the numbers of visitors
4 and car emissions and look at ways to reduce emissions
5 near the Class 1 areas.
6 The problem we have is that people making
7 rules for these areas have never been to these areas. I
8 am disappointed in the EPA for many reasons by having
9 their meeting here in Salt Lake. One reason in
10 particular, by not having the -- this hearing is about
11 the Hunter and Huntington plants.
12 Two hours in Emery County would have shown you
13 and given you firsthand knowledge and witness of our
14 lack of haze that these power plants produce. The blue
15 skies in our area is a rule not the exception. And I
16 will be submitting photos with my remarks later so you
17 can see them.
18 And again, I encourage you to support the
19 State Implementation Plan in its entirety. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Carol Walters.
22 (Discussion off the record.)
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: We're actually going
24 to end the hearing for this afternoon, and we will be
25 back here at six o'clock. So if you filled out a card
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 146 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 and you haven't spoken yet, you will be first up at six
2 o'clock. So thank you all for coming. This hearing is
3 closed.
4 (Recess from 4:59 p.m. to 6:03 p.m.)
5 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Good evening,
6 everyone. We're going to get started. My name is
7 Elyana Sutin, and I am from the EPA in Denver, Colorado,
8 and I am presiding over this hearing tonight. I will be
9 keeping things moving as quickly and as efficiently as
10 we can so everyone has a chance to speak that would like
11 to. This hearing is now officially in session.
12 The subject of tonight's hearing is the
13 Environmental Protection Agency's co-proposal for Utah's
14 Regional Haze State Implementation Plan or SIP. Our
15 rulemaking action co-proposes two different approaches.
16 The first approach fully approves Utah
17 Regional Haze SIP addressing the requirements of the
18 Federal Rules For Regional Haze.
19 The second approach partially approves and
20 partially disapproves Utah's Regional Haze SIP,
21 proposing a Federal Implementation Plan or FIP for those
22 elements of the SIP for which we are proposing
23 disapproval. You will hear more detail regarding the
24 two approaches in the proposed action from Monica
25 Morales, who is sitting at the table with me
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 147 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 momentarily.
2 We ran out of fact sheets, but the fact sheet
3 can be found on EPA Region 8 website, and this explains
4 how you may submit written comments on EPA's proposed
5 action and also gives the Federal Register citation for
6 the proposed action.
7 Jasyln Dobrahner is sitting at the back the
8 room. Jasyln, you want to wave your hand? And she can
9 assist you with obtaining any information on how to
10 supply written comments or if you need a registration
11 card if you wish to speak. I'll explain a bit more
12 about the registration cards in a moment.
13 The hearing is a means for EPA to listen to
14 your comments on the proposed action that has been
15 published as a Federal Register proposed rule. Before I
16 turn it over to Monica, let me explain a bit about the
17 process and a few ground rules.
18 When EPA takes action on a State
19 Implementation Plan or a Federal Implementation Plan, it
20 is required to do so through rulemaking. This
21 rulemaking is governed by laws passed by Congress. For
22 SIPs, this is the Administrative Procedures Act. For
23 FIPs, the Clean Air Act.
24 In either case, EPA must publish a proposed
25 rule in the Federal Register, take public comment on the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 148 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 proposed rule, and publish a final rule in the Federal
2 Register after considering the comments. In the case of
3 a FIP, EPA is also required to conduct a hearing, which
4 is what we're doing today. After considering all of the
5 comments, EPA may decide to make changes to the proposed
6 rule or it may decide to move forward and finalize one
7 of the approaches in the proposed rule.
8 We are here tonight to listen to your
9 comments. We will attempt to answer any clarifying
10 questions about the process or what's contained in the
11 proposed action, but we are not here to explain the
12 basis of the proposed action. The Federal Register
13 notice does that. We cannot engage in a back and forth
14 discussion of the proposed action or respond to your
15 comments during this hearing.
16 The purpose of the hearing is to receive your
17 input. We will consider and then respond to all
18 comments received during the hearing, as well as written
19 comments in a final Federal Register notice. If you
20 have already made comments, there is no need to repeat
21 them today. We are recording our proceeding here
22 tonight, so be assured that your comments will be
23 considered.
24 The court reporter sitting to my left will be
25 preparing a transcript of tonight's proceeding. That
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 149 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 will be available to anyone who wants to see it. The
2 transcript is part of the record, and will be included
3 in the rulemaking docket. The rulemaking docket is
4 where EPA collects materials it has considered in the
5 rulemaking action, including public comments.
6 The docket is available on the Internet for
7 review at regulations.gov, or can you view a hard copy
8 at EPA's Denver office. Specific instructions for
9 accessing the docket are described in the Federal
10 Register notice for the proposed rulemaking and on the
11 fact sheet. The transcript of this hearing will also be
12 available in the rulemaking docket.
13 Before we begin taking your comments, first
14 allow me to take a moment to set the stage; that is, to
15 explain how the hearing will be run. After I speak,
16 Monica, who is sitting with me, will explain the details
17 of the proposed action. She will explain EPA's proposed
18 action to approve of the state SIP as well as what EPA's
19 proposing in its FIP based on the Federal Clean Air Act
20 requirements for regional haze.
21 I will then call people to speak based on the
22 registration card that was filled out when you arrived.
23 I will provide the registration card to the court
24 reporter to assist in the spelling of your name. Please
25 spell your name before beginning your remarks. If you
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 150 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 are reading from a written statement, it would be
2 helpful, though not required, if you could provide a
3 copy of your statement to the court reporter or our
4 staff at the registration table after you have finished
5 your remarks.
6 Please speak slowly and clearly so the court
7 reporter can accurately capture your statement. Also,
8 there is space on the back of the registration card for
9 providing short written comments. If you are only here
10 to observe, there is no need to fill out a registration
11 card.
12 We have quite a few people here tonight. I
13 don't know that everybody wants to speak, but I want to
14 ensure that everybody has the opportunity to speak about
15 the proposed action. So in order to do that, I need to
16 keep people's comments brief, three minutes or less. At
17 least for now. If we have time at the end, people can
18 speak more.
19 Please try to be as succinct and on point as
20 you can. If I find that we are straying from the topic
21 at hand, I will interrupt and ask that you please return
22 to the issue before us. If we have time and everyone
23 has had the chance to speak, I will allow people to get
24 back up and finish.
25 Gail Fallon, sitting to my left, will assist
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 151 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 me with monitoring speaker times by raising a yellow
2 card when 30 seconds of time remains and raising a pink
3 card when time has expired. So that's how we will
4 proceed.
5 Next to speak will be Monica Morales, who will
6 explain the proposed action. Thank you.
7 MONICA MORALES: Good evening. My name is
8 Monica Morales. I am the unit chief of the Air Quality
9 Planning Unit for EPA's Region 8 office in Denver. As
10 you heard from Ms. Sutin, this hearing concerns EPA's
11 proposed action on a portion of Utah's Regional Haze
12 State Implementation Plan that addresses the
13 requirements pertaining to particulate matter and
14 nitrogen oxides and visibility impacts those pollutants
15 have on wilderness areas and national parks, also known
16 as Class 1 areas under the Regional Haze Rule.
17 Our proposed action was published in the
18 Federal Register on January 14th, 2016.
19 The portion of Utah's Regional Haze State
20 Implementation Plan or SIP upon which one of EPA's
21 proposed action is based includes requirements for
22 specific PacifiCorp's Hunter, Huntington and Carbon
23 coal-fired power plants. These plants are located in
24 central Utah. PacifiCorp operates Rocky Mountain Power
25 in Utah.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 152 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Our January 14th, 2016, rulemaking action
2 co-propose two different approaches. The first approach
3 fully approves Utah Regional Haze SIP addressing the
4 requirements of the Regional Haze Rule under 40 Code of
5 Federal Regulations 51.309(g). And the second approach
6 partially approves and partially disapproves Utah's
7 Regional Haze SIP, proposing a Federal implementation
8 plan, or FIP, for those elements of the SIP for which we
9 are proposing disapproval.
10 Under our first approach, EPA's proposing to
11 fully approve the two Regional Haze SIP revisions
12 submitted by Utah in 2015. Specifically, we are
13 proposing to approve the following:
14 The state's particulate matter best available
15 retrofit technology, or BART, determinations for
16 PacifiCorp's Hunter Units 1 and 2 and Huntington Units 1
17 and 2, the state's nitrogen oxide BART alternative for
18 PacifiCorp's Hunter Units 1, 2 and 3, Huntington Units 1
19 and 2 and Carbon Units 1 and 2, the state's monitoring,
20 recordkeeping and reporting requirements in part H of
21 Utah's SIP for the particulate matter BART
22 determinations and the nitrogen oxide BART alternative.
23 Under our second approach, we are proposing to
24 approve only the portions of the state SIP that pertain
25 to the particulate matter BART and the associated
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 153 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 particulate matter monitoring, recordkeeping and
2 reporting requirements for the BART sources. We are
3 proposing to find that some aspects Utah Regional Haze
4 SIP are inconsistent with the regulatory and statutory
5 requirements.
6 As a result, we are proposing to disapprove
7 the state's nitrogen oxide BART alternative for
8 PacifiCorp Hunter Units 1, 2 and 3, Huntington Units 1
9 and 2 and Carbon Units 1 and 2, and the associated NOx
10 monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting requirements for
11 the nitrogen oxide BART alternative.
12 We are proposing the promulgation of a FIP to
13 address the deficiencies in those portions of the
14 state's SIP which we are proposing to disapprove.
15 The co-proposed FIP includes the following
16 elements: Nitrogen oxide BART determinations and
17 emission limits for PacifiCorp's Hunter Units 1 and 2
18 and Huntington Units 1 and 2 and the associated
19 monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting requirements
20 applicable for these four BART units for which there is
21 a FIP emission limit.
22 As part of the public comment process, EPA is
23 specifically requesting that interested parties provide
24 any additional information or analysis regarding the
25 proposed action. For example, modeled visibility
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 154 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 benefits of the BART alternative compared to BART and
2 whether the interested parties think EPA should consider
3 options that differ somewhat from the proposed BART
4 alternative or the BART control technology option which
5 could be finalized as the FIP if we disapprove the
6 state's SIP submitted in our final action.
7 EPA will consider all comments and information
8 received, including additional options for control
9 technologies and timing, before issuing a final action.
10 We anticipate that there will be differing
11 views regarding the state's BART alternative SIP and
12 what course of action EPA should take. This is because
13 of the complex nature of the BART alternative, the
14 analysis that it supports and consideration of that
15 analysis under statutory and regulatory framework and
16 implications of EPA's actions.
17 Given these considerations, EPA decided to
18 solicit comments to support either a proposed action to
19 approve the state's SIP in its entirety or a proposed
20 action to partially approve and partially disapprove the
21 state's SIP and propose a FIP.
22 As is done with other states, EPA would work
23 with the state on a revised state plan should a partial
24 disapproval and FIP be finalized. If EPA finalizes our
25 federal plan and the state finalizes a revised plan that
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 155 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 adequately addresses regional haze, our federal plan
2 could be superseded upon approval of the state's revised
3 plan.
4 We are accepting written comments for 60 days
5 after the proposed action was published in the Federal
6 Register on January 14th, 2016, and written comments
7 must therefore be received by EPA on or before March
8 14th, 2016. Your comments are encouraged. We consider
9 all comments in finalizing our action on the state's
10 regional haze plan and our federal plan.
11 Thank you. And we appreciate your attendance
12 tonight, and I'll turn it back over to Ms. Sutin to call
13 up our first commenter.
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. When I call
15 your name, if you can please come to the podium and make
16 your remarks. Our first speaker will be Kathryn Albury.
17 KATHRYN ALBURY: My name is Kathryn Albury.
18 K-A-T-R-H-R-Y-N, A-L-B-U-R-Y. Miss Chairman and EPA
19 representatives, I thank you for being here today and
20 listening to the words of a public -- of the public. I
21 know this has been a long day for you, and you have
22 heard many of the same ideas over and over again.
23 Please keep in mind that we are the public speaking.
24 We, the public are not paid to come here and speak.
25 Since many of us have divested of our
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 156 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 interests in fossil fuels, we don't make any money from
2 these power plants. We are speaking here because we are
3 truly concerned about air quality in our state.
4 The power plants in question today are far
5 away and near the little towns of Huntington and Castle
6 Dale in the shadow of the Manti-La Sal National Forest
7 with eight national parks within 85 miles, all with
8 beautiful vistas.
9 Unfortunately, they are unable to keep their
10 air in only Emery County, and with its haze their air
11 gets blown around until it's spread all over the state
12 and far beyond. Truly, whatever goes out of the
13 smokestacks at these two plants goes all over the world
14 and contributes to the greenhouse effect that is
15 changing our climate.
16 Our responsibility here is to protect the
17 people, the people of Castle Dale and Huntington, the
18 people on the Wasatch Front, the people of Utah, and the
19 United States, and indeed the whole world.
20 I understand there are two plans before you.
21 One is business as usual. The other adds modern
22 pollution control devices to these smokestacks. These
23 are old plants, built in the 1970's well before there
24 was so much concern about the now well understood health
25 effects of dirty air.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 157 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 These plants are owned by a tangle of mega
2 corporations, and I'm sure their officers are concerned
3 about how safety regulation relating to the burning of
4 coal will damage their businesses. I hope they are just
5 as worried about how business as usual degrades the
6 quality of life in Utah and beyond.
7 But times are changing. So what else is new?
8 The times are always changing. We know now how to
9 eliminate some of the health robbing pollutants from
10 these smokestack emissions. So why not do that?
11 I would ask that you go the next step and
12 remove all CO2 emissions. Sadly, I think that is beyond
13 the scope of today's hearing. I am sure that if the
14 public were asking for more electricity, these companies
15 would be glad to gear up and build more plants. This
16 member of the public is asking for cleaner air.
17 Hopefully the companies that own Hunter and Huntington
18 plants would be as responsive to that request.
19 I ask that you, as the regulatory agency
20 protecting my best interest, hold them to that. Please
21 adopt the second plan, the FIP. Thank you for your
22 patience and your attention.
23 (Applause).
24 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Miss
25 Albury. Next, we can have Carol Walters. Carol
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 158 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Walters. Martha Waters. Richard Dillon. Lindon
2 Emerson. Sandy Hill. Cory MacNulty.
3 CORY MacNULTY: Thank you for the opportunity
4 to comment today. I am Cory MacNulty. C-O-R-Y,
5 M-A-C-N-U-T-L-Y. And I am speaking on behalf of the
6 National Parks Conservation Association, a nearly
7 100-year-old organization long committed to the
8 conservation and protection of our country's national
9 parks and their cherished resources, and our more than a
10 million members and supporters across the country.
11 We see only one real choice of the two options
12 advanced by the EPA, and that choice is cutting 9,886
13 tons per year of nitrogen oxide emissions, a 76 percent
14 reduction from Units 1 and 2 at both Hunter and
15 Huntington. The state's best available retrofit
16 technology eligible sources under the Clean Air Act.
17 Everyone from PacifiCorp to the state and EPA
18 to the National Park Service and other public interest
19 groups like NPCA acknowledge that pollution from Hunter
20 and Huntington contribute to haze in eight national
21 parks, including Utah's mighty five, Arches,
22 Canyonlands, Bryce, Capitol Reef and Zion, as well as
23 Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde and Black Canyon of the
24 Gunnison National Park.
25 This is pollution that obscures up to 87 miles
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 159 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of the landscape that should be visible through Delicate
2 Arch at Arches National Park, and from the Island in the
3 Sky viewpoint at Canyonlands.
4 PacifiCorp should be held to the same
5 standards as over 250 similar facilities across the
6 country which are required to operate selective
7 catalytic reduction to cut nitrogen oxide pollution.
8 We ask the EPA to reject the state's
9 alternative proposal. It would cut zero
10 visibility-impairing pollutants from two of the state's
11 largest coal plants polluting our parks and unjustly
12 claim that pollution reductions already achieved by the
13 closure of the Carbon plant are a victory for our future
14 and victory for the parks. The alternative is a lost
15 opportunity, not a victory.
16 With the concentration of extraordinary
17 national parks in Utah that draw over 10 million
18 visitors from around the world, and that add 730 million
19 dollars to Utah's economy, we urge the EPA to require
20 the same level of pollution controls on Hunter and
21 Huntington as our neighboring states, and bring months
22 of the additional cleaner air days to southwestern
23 national parks.
24 Now, if I may, I would like to add a more
25 personal comment as a mother and as someone who loves
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 160 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 our national parks. Last year my family, including my
2 two young sons, took spring break in Capitol Reef
3 National Park, where we journeyed down Notom road, up
4 the Burr Trail Switchbacks and hiked to an overlook
5 along the Upper Muley Twist Canyon.
6 The goal of that adventure was to see the
7 length of the Waterpocket Fold, but when we reached the
8 top, the expansive view was cut by haze, and the vivid
9 layers of colors were muddy.
10 I know that the coal pollution alone didn't
11 cause that level of haze. But with Capitol Reef less
12 than 85 miles from Hunter and Huntington, it was likely
13 a contributing factor. We have the opportunity and the
14 ability right now to significantly cut pollution from
15 these coal plants and remove it from the equation.
16 Living in Utah, my children will probably have
17 another chance to see Capitol Reef from that vantage
18 point, hopefully on a clear day. But many visitors only
19 get one chance to create those memories. Thank you.
20 (Applause).
21 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you,
22 Ms. MacNulty. Catherine Sharpsteen.
23 CATHERINE SHARPSTEEN: Hello. I am Catherine
24 Sharpsteen. Do you need me to spell my name?
25 C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E, S-H-A-R-P-S-T-E-E-N. I can't pretend
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 161 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 to have technical expertise, But I do know what it's
2 like to view Utah's world class scenery through haze.
3 When haze blurs those vistas, we have lost something
4 vital, not just to our enjoyment, but to the very
5 wellbeing of ourselves and of the land itself.
6 I don't have expertise, but I do hold the
7 value that short-term profits should never be considered
8 over long-term health.
9 I don't have expertise, but I do know that if
10 there exists a technical solution for this pollution
11 problem, such as selective catalytic reduction, it
12 should be used. Better yet it would be to find an
13 alternative to coal-fired power production. It may be
14 more expensive, but we are worth it.
15 I am taking your time to say this not because
16 it's a unique thought, but because, for every commenter
17 like me, there are many others who feel the same way,
18 and -- but aren't able to comment.
19 I am advocating for the most stringent
20 controls on air pollution in coal-fired power plants on
21 behalf of all of us. Thank you.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Cindy
24 King.
25 CINDY KING: My name is Cindy king. K-I-N-G.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 162 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 I am for the second option, the Federal Implementation
2 Plan for Regional Haze for three reasons. Thirty years
3 ago my husband was a Division of Air Quality official,
4 sat on a panel called the integrated vistas for
5 protection of our national parks. The state of Utah did
6 nothing.
7 Second reason. NOx is a precursor of haze and
8 ozone and secondary particulates. If NOx is present,
9 CO2 is present, known as a climate chaos compound as
10 part of the public trust doctrine that is incorporated
11 in the Clean Air Act.
12 Three, the only cost looked at was Rocky
13 Mountain coal power plants, between 7 and 8 million
14 dollars. No other costs was looked at like tourism,
15 Native America culture sites, public health or
16 environmental degradation.
17 Thank you so very much for your time.
18 (Applause).
19 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Jen Colby.
20 Jen Colby. Pat Clay. Pat Clay. Jill Merritt.
21 JILL MERRITT: Thank you for creating this
22 public process for us, and for allowing me to speak on a
23 nontechnical way from my heart.
24 I am a product of what I think of very fondly
25 as the Utah public education system. More than 50 years
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 163 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 ago, I sat with my classmates in bolted-down wooden
2 desks at Irving Junior High and learned about Utah
3 history. Miss Law was our teacher.
4 She taught us about the geography of Lake
5 Bonneville, the people who lived here before the
6 pioneers came, the importance of achieving statehood,
7 and the meaning of citizenship in a state, part of a
8 larger entity, the United States of America.
9 Other classes and other teachers have taught
10 me that people belong to the land, not the other way
11 around. That beautiful landscapes in our national parks
12 need to be preserved for all people to enjoy, that the
13 air over the parks can be protected from the dirty haze
14 produced by coal plants. And that working within public
15 structures can succeed in pulling humanity back from the
16 very brink of disaster. I hope so. I guess we'll see.
17 (Applause).
18 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Ian Wade. Ian Wade.
19 Allison Jones. Allison Jones. Margie McCloy. Margie
20 McCloy. Victoria Sethunya. Did I say that right?
21 Victoria Sethunya. Helen -- or excuse me, Helene Cuomo.
22 Helene Cuomo. Jerry Urlacher.
23 JERRY URLACHER: Close.
24 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Sorry.
25 MR. URLACHER: Hello. My name is Jerry
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 164 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Urlacher. That's J-E-R-R-Y, U-R-L-A-C-H-E-R. I came to
2 Utah in 1973, that's 43 years ago, after being released
3 from active duty having served in the U.S. Navy in
4 Vietnam. I came to Utah to pursue my education at Utah
5 State University, and I have a degree in wilderness
6 recreation management.
7 And I came to Utah to enjoy this world class
8 skiing and to spend time in Utah's spectacular
9 wilderness, backpacking, hiking, canyoneering, outdoor
10 pursuits that I didn't have much of an opportunity to
11 pursue while growing up in rural North Dakota. And I
12 have been exploring Utah's national parks and wilderness
13 for almost 43 years, and I continue to do so in my
14 current retirement.
15 And over those years, I have observed a
16 deterioration of the air quality. Fewer crystal clear
17 days and an increase in the haze with skies that have
18 become a little less blue. I feel that pollution from
19 coal-fired power plants threatens our skies, our health
20 and our livelihoods.
21 Here in Utah we pride ourselves on the beauty
22 of our world-renowned national parks. Visitors to our
23 parks come from all across the world, and adds some 12
24 billion dollars to the state's economy which supports
25 about 130,000 jobs. And that's about one out of every
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 165 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 10 jobs in our state.
2 Unfortunately though, now too many of our
3 visitors aren't greeted by those amazing vistas and
4 clear skies they came for, but by vistas that are now
5 partially obscured by haze pollution from coal-fired
6 power plants.
7 I urge the EPA to implement the Clean Parks
8 Plan and require cuts of coal-fired power plant
9 pollution by requiring installation of industry-accepted
10 pollution controls, SCR, pollution controls that are
11 already in use at more than 250 coal burning U.S. power
12 plants.
13 We cannot wait until 2060, that's 2060, to
14 protect our national parks and wilderness areas to
15 return them to natural visibility. Thank you.
16 (Applause).
17 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next Ashley Soltysiak.
18 Is that wrong? S-O-L-T-Y-S-I-A-K. Nick Mills. Nick
19 Mills. Mark Compton. Mark Compton. Steve Moore.
20 Steve Moore. Jay Marple.
21 JAY MARPLE: Good evening. My name is Jay
22 Marple. J-A-Y, M-A-R-P-L-E. I work in the Price and
23 live in Price, Utah area. I am general manager for
24 Savage. You know, we're a Utah-based transportation and
25 logistics company with 70 years experience in that area,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 166 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 and we have more than 200 operating locations across
2 North America and globally.
3 We have worked closely with PacifiCorp and
4 Bowie Resource Partners and have a long history of
5 providing supply chain solutions for our customers'
6 power plant and coal mining operations in Utah. Savage
7 agrees with the position taken by PacifiCorp and Bowie
8 on this issue.
9 We believe the Utah Department of
10 Environmental Quality Regional Haze State Implementation
11 Plan provides a greater reasonable progress towards
12 visibility goals at a significantly lower cost than does
13 the EPA co-proposal that would require the installation
14 of selective catalyst reduction.
15 From 2007 to 2015 the requirements imposed by
16 the Utah's Regional Haze State Implementation Plan and
17 revision have been fully implemented. Therefore, we
18 encourage the EPA to approve the state plan as
19 submitted.
20 The alternative measure included in the Utah
21 Regional Haze State Implementation Plan revision would
22 result in lower total emissions and improve visibility.
23 It would also save PacifiCorp customers hundreds of
24 millions of dollars as compared to the cost of
25 installing equipment to meet SCR and NOx emissions
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 167 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 limits being proposed by the EPA.
2 For these reasons we support Option 1 of EPA's
3 proposed rule allowing for the implementation of Utah's
4 state plan. It is in the best interests of Utah
5 residents to avoid the unnecessary costs that EPA's
6 second proposed option for NOx emissions would impose,
7 without producing meaningful visibility improvements
8 above those already achieved.
9 On a personal note also, I do live in Carbon
10 County. It's where my family is from. And right now,
11 we have up to, you know, a hundred employees and
12 families that work for us that depend on these power
13 plants for jobs. So thank you for your time.
14 (Applause).
15 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next
16 Sharon Clark.
17 SHARON CLARK: Thank you for allowing me to
18 speak to you this evening. My name is Sharon Clark.
19 S-H-A-R-O-N, C-L-A-R-K. Living in Utah we value
20 wilderness areas and breathing clean air. Technology is
21 now available that will reduce 75 percent of harmful air
22 pollution that is currently polluting our air at eight
23 national parks, including Arches, Canyonlands and
24 Capitol Reef National Parks.
25 The Hunter and Huntington plants are
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 168 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 responsible for 40 percent of the dangerous haze-causing
2 nitrogen oxide pollution emitted by the electricity
3 sector.
4 Pollution from the plants contributes to 11
5 premature deaths and 233 asthma attacks every year,
6 according to the Clean Air Task Force. One death is a
7 tragedy, but this pollution contributes to 11 premature
8 deaths per year. I don't know that you can put a price
9 tag on that.
10 Let us be proactive in taking care of the
11 environment, our people and visitors to the great state
12 of Utah, as our neighbors in New Mexico, Colorado and
13 Arizona have done.
14 I believe we should reject the State of Utah's
15 proposal and implement the federal proposal that will
16 support long lasting change and provide for cleaner air
17 in the concerned areas. Thank you.
18 (Applause).
19 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
20 we can have Marjorie Rasmussen.
21 MARJORIE RASMUSSEN: Thank you. Every time I
22 visit one of our national parks, I am overwhelmed by
23 their beauty. These are places as a Utah resident that
24 I can visit in just a day's drive. How amazing is that?
25 We have an opportunity to now ensure that
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 169 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 these areas are protected. Arizona does it. New Mexico
2 does it. Colorado does it. Why not Utah?
3 Our communities, our economy and our visitors
4 deserve the Clean Parks Plan, the second one.
5 Installing modern pollution controls on two aging coal
6 plants in the disputable area will make the air we
7 breathe cleaner, and it will keep the view spectacular
8 for millions of people. The parks are for all the
9 people.
10 The EPA recently put in place the fair
11 protections of the Clean Parks Plan. Allowing 5,000
12 pounds of nitrogen oxide to pour out of these plants
13 every hour of every day is frightening, and simply
14 should not be considered an option.
15 Closure of the Carbon plant was a benefit, but
16 the state's plan to use this as a bank simply robs Peter
17 to pay Paul and it doesn't make sense. It really
18 doesn't.
19 We all deserve better. These are the people's
20 parks, our parks and our home. And that is why I am
21 here in favor of the Clean Parks Plan and asking the EPA
22 to be in favor of it also. Thank you.
23 (Applause).
24 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, if we can have
25 Cordell Roy.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 170 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 CORDELL ROY: Hi. My name is Cordell Roy.
2 C-O-R-D-E-L-L, R-O-Y, last name. Improvement in
3 regional haze benefits us all. Congress recognized
4 national parks and wilderness areas because of their
5 outstanding air-quality-related values as worthy of the
6 highest level of protection. And because they are
7 identifiable, specific areas located throughout our
8 nation, those areas are indicators of regional air
9 quality.
10 Deterioration or lack of improvement of
11 regional air quality adversely affects us all because
12 air we can't see through really is not good for us to
13 breathe. Of course, I advocate for protection of Class
14 1 areas to the highest degree. I submit that we all
15 benefit as visitors to those iconic Class 1 areas from
16 air quality improvement. But also as residents of those
17 regions. It follows that improved air quality inside a
18 Class 1 area extends far beyond that area's boundary.
19 Excuse me.
20 Haven't these regional haze considerations
21 been going on long enough? A State Implementation Plan
22 that was supposed to begin in 2007 is still dragging on
23 in 2016. Surely Class 1 areas in Utah deserve better
24 than that.
25 Thus, I urge EPA to reject Utah's proposed
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 171 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Regional Haze Plan as it makes no meaningful improvement
2 to the regional haze problem, and recommend the
3 implementation of best availability retrofit technology
4 by requiring selective catalytic reduction at Hunter and
5 Huntington Units 1 and 2.
6 (Applause).
7 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next,
8 Lucas Earl. Lucas Earl. Stan Holmes.
9 STAN HOLMES: Good evening. My name is Stan
10 Holmes. S-T-A-N, H-O-L-M-E-S. And I'm with the Utah
11 Citizens Advocating Renewable Energy. I'd like to thank
12 you for this opportunity for public input.
13 Our group was formed two years ago to
14 challenge Berkshire Hathaway's, operating here as Rocky
15 Mountain Power, PacifiCorp, efforts to punish rooftop
16 solar producers. We have several interests at UCare in
17 regional haze reduction.
18 Of course, we all look at the pollution
19 threats to our families and our state. We also look at
20 the ongoing obstacles to clean energy, clean air
21 development because the fossil fuel industry has
22 tremendous power in our otherwise sunny state.
23 We have raised concerns about haze and
24 haze-related issues on many occasions over the past
25 couple of years. Our goal is to see that the true costs
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 172 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 of coal extraction, combustion and disposal are
2 incorporated into policy formulation.
3 The state government of Utah has not been
4 particularly cooperative. We first weighed in with the
5 public comment to the DAQ, Division of Air Quality, in
6 December of 2014, on the Regional Haze SIP progress
7 report. And in that submission, we recognized that the
8 focus on haze is really in fact a focus on air quality
9 degradation by pollution.
10 Most adults know that haze means the air is
11 polluted with contaminants that were not healthy for
12 humans. And this document and three other documents are
13 included on the CD that we are submitting for the
14 hearing record.
15 We are concerned that the health care and
16 other economic costs, as well as environmental costs,
17 associated with haze generating were not quantified or
18 otherwise addressed.
19 We felt and still feel that the societal costs
20 of electrical generation units, EGUs, and the identified
21 BART coal-fired plants specifically should have been
22 identified and factored into the determination of
23 reasonable costs of -- for the reducing levels of sulfur
24 dioxide, nitrous oxide and other harmful pollutants.
25 Just to move on quickly through this,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 173 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 basically we asked for some addition of what are
2 sometimes referred to as externalized societal costs.
3 That was not done.
4 We learned that in 2010 Senna Energy Economics
5 had conducted a report for the state of Utah in which it
6 assumed that there were hundreds of premature deaths
7 connected to EGUs in Utah, as well as perhaps a billion
8 dollars in health care costs. But on the bright side,
9 to a certain extent, I suppose in a twisted way, is that
10 most of those premature deaths were downwind in
11 Colorado. So we have Colorado downwinders.
12 We support Option 2 and would like the federal
13 government to step in where the state has failed. Thank
14 you.
15 (Applause).
16 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Holmes.
17 Bob Brister. Bob Brister. Kyle, is it Lore?
18 KYLE LORE: Lore. Kyle Lore. K-Y-L-E,
19 L-O-R-E. Brief statement, sorry. Just a brief comment.
20 I'm a chef by trade. Allowing the state to continually
21 shortcut modernization in the mining and energy sector
22 has led us to the point where we are known for bad air.
23 As a chef and avid outdoorsman, it has a
24 direct affect on my income and my quality of life. As a
25 chef I am dependent upon locals and travellers spending
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 174 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 discretionary income. I have both watched and
2 participated over the years as Utah has slowly moved
3 from a resource-stripping-based economy to a more
4 diverse business and tourist-based economy especially in
5 the regions that are near the national parks.
6 In all aspects this movement has insulated our
7 economy from the boom to bust mining economy of the past
8 and given us a better economic growth through the
9 recession than other states.
10 The state has been historically slow to change
11 in matters of environmental impact. At some point the
12 importance of the sustainable resource that our clean
13 environment provides to a greater number of citizens, by
14 bringing the adventure tourist dollars to all areas of
15 our state, has to be seen as more important than
16 allowing PacifiCorp and their parent company, Berkshire
17 Hathaway, to do business as usual.
18 Their own facilities in many other states are
19 modernized and Berkshire Hathaway list among it's
20 corporate principles regulatory integrity and
21 environmental respect. What a great opportunity for
22 them abide by those core principles.
23 For the State of Utah Department of
24 Environmental Quality to allow have them to have an
25 ongoing 12 year hall pass on basic modernization is
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 175 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 unacceptable. The time to force their hands has come.
2 We are demanding clean parks.
3 (Applause).
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Kenwyn Derby.
5 KENWYN DERBY: Hi. Thank you. My name is
6 Kenwyn Derby. K-E-N-W-Y-N. Last name, D-E-R-B-Y. And
7 I am a citizen representing my family and friends. I am
8 here to advocate for the second plan, the clean parks
9 federal plan, and rejection of the state's alternative
10 plan.
11 I think about this a lot, and I think, what is
12 the real question? This is a democracy, and while we
13 are also a capitalist nation that encourages and
14 benefits from entrepreneurism and outputs from energy,
15 and we need energy.
16 As a democracy, we should prioritize the good
17 of the community, which here includes such a vast
18 majority of our citizens as to almost equal 100 percent
19 of us, over the profits of a very few.
20 I sympathize with the coal companies workers
21 and all of the associated companies that work with them.
22 I sympathize with their fears regarding their
23 livelihood. But I think we would be naive to think that
24 a very profitable company will cease operations because
25 they have to make some improvements that will decrease
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 176 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 their very sizable profit.
2 If other coal burning facilities and
3 especially similar and conservative states near us can
4 install these modern pollution reduction controls, why
5 not here?
6 We need energy. But it doesn't mean we have
7 to suffer with haze and reduced enjoyment of our
8 gorgeous country that drives a lot of our economy, or
9 most importantly, sickness and death of the workers
10 themselves as well.
11 These pollution controls do something. The
12 company seems to argue that they won't make much of a
13 difference. But then why do 250 other facilities have
14 these already installed? It is in the state's interest
15 to lower medical costs, to raise tourism revenues and to
16 care about their citizens. And if the EPA won't side
17 with health and environment over private profits, who
18 will?
19 We have a democracy because we work together
20 to provide protections for ourselves. This is not an
21 oligarchy. And there isn't a good reason to not go with
22 the Clean Parks Plan. Thank you.
23 (Applause).
24 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, Charles
25 Trentalman.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 177 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 CHARLES TRENTALMAN: Thank you. That's
2 Charles, common spelling, Trentalman.
3 T-R-E-N-T-A-L-M-A-N. Thank you. I won't claim to know
4 the difference between a FIP and a SIP. But I just
5 wanted to talk about some of the direct costs to Utah's
6 dirty air. The Department -- Utah Department of Health
7 says that close to 10 percent of all residents in the
8 state suffer from asthma. I am one of them. If you
9 know someone with asthma, you know that Utah's bad air
10 days make the problem worse.
11 Asthma can be controlled with drugs. Last
12 week I renewed my prescription for rescue inhaler to
13 deal with sudden attacks, and a steroid inhaler to
14 prevent attacks. These two medications are standard and
15 very common, and I would be happy to show the receipts.
16 Between my copay and what my insurance paid,
17 these two drugs cost about $450 dollars. These were
18 meant to last one month. Although I, like many people,
19 stretch that out, because I don't have that much money
20 either. So what? Insurance pays. But it gets the
21 money from you and me in the form of insurance premiums.
22 My own insurance is PEHP, which means my
23 premiums cost money from Utah taxpayers to pay for my
24 drugs. It's the same no matter which insurance you
25 have.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 178 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 When an asthma sufferer buys their drugs, we
2 all pay. How much? If you do the math, monthly
3 medications for Utah's nearly 300,000 asthma sufferers
4 cost about 135 million dollars every month. That is
5 money you and I pay every month. When the air is bad,
6 we pay more.
7 My night in an emergency room three years ago
8 cost you and me and everyone in the state $5,000. And
9 the surgery from pneumonia three months later was more
10 than $40,000, all costs made worse by bad air. Thank
11 you.
12 (Applause).
13 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next
14 Matthew Hope.
15 MATTHEW HOPE: How are you guys doing today?
16 Ain't America awesome. Hear everybody. See what we got
17 to say. I have a lot going through my brain right now.
18 Should have written it all down, but whatever comes out
19 comes out. I just want to talk to an open heart and an
20 open mind. We all have our way of life. We all live in
21 this world. We all do our best. Don't we?
22 VOICE: Not always.
23 MATTHEW HOPE: Not always. Live and learn,
24 right? But the question is, if you take away my job,
25 what am I going to do? Am I going to sit downstairs and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 179 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 ask for food? I don't know what I am going to do. I
2 got three kids to take care of.
3 This is my way of life. I didn't plan for
4 this. But here I am thrown in the mix, war of words,
5 whatever you want to call it. But we're all healthy.
6 We got our inhalers, I guess. I don't know. But we're
7 healthy. We're here. Isn't that something? I mean, I
8 think we need to focus on this and then focus on someone
9 else.
10 Come down to the coal mines. Come and see
11 what we're about. If you don't know us, get to know us,
12 and we'll get to know you, too. Because we're united,
13 and if we're not, we're something worse. So let's be
14 together. Let's find a solution because we all got to
15 live. Thanks.
16 (Applause).
17 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Mr. Hope.
18 Next Dave Thomas.
19 DAVE THOMAS: Dave Thomas. D-A-V-E,
20 T-H-O-M-A-S. I am speaking as a citizen. I am asking
21 the EPA to reject the State Implementation Plan. I'd
22 like to say that this is not easy for me. I live in
23 Utah, but I was born and raised in Montana. My father
24 was a coal miner. His father was a coal miner. He died
25 of black lung disease.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 180 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 My mother's father was a coal miner. Her
2 brothers were coal miners. So I am well aware of the
3 things that happen when coal mines and jobs close down
4 and that sort of thing. But I am still asking the EPA
5 to reject the State Implementation Plan.
6 My basic logic on this is that I have
7 absolutely no faith that the environmental regulators in
8 Utah will do anything to clean up haze or air in Utah
9 unless there is a federal presence.
10 (Applause).
11 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Tom
12 Benhard.
13 TOM BENHARD: Benhard.
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Benhard.
15 TOM BENHARD: I'd like to thank you for having
16 me. Tom Benhard. B-E-N-H-A-R-D, last name. I
17 appreciate the opportunity to take a few minutes. Like
18 the couple of previous, I don't have anything written.
19 But I would like to say I've participated with the Utah
20 Physicians For Healthy Environment in this area and have
21 done some presentations regarding the negative
22 externalities; in other words, the health impacts of bad
23 air. And even though the EPA is using the terms haze,
24 as people have mentioned, it's a health issue.
25 Whenever the AQI is up, there's cardiac
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 181 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 events, there's arrhythmias. There's also -- it's also
2 been linked to, as mentioned, premature deaths. Also
3 genetic mutations that can go down multiple generations.
4 So -- and I empathize with the coal workers.
5 But just realize that his family is also exposed to this
6 air, and those mutations are going to be manifested in
7 their families as well.
8 As far as costs goes, you know, PacifiCorp, I
9 lecture up there, is responsible for the extraction.
10 But our taxpayer dollars are subsidizing those coal
11 leases. And so I encourage the implementation of the
12 FIP, the federal plan, and know that we need some
13 federal oversight to clean up our air. And I thank you
14 for your time.
15 (Applause).
16 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
17 we could have Jared Carson.
18 JARED CARSON: Jared Carson. J-A-R-E-D,
19 C-A-R-S-O-N. I am in favor of the State Implementation
20 Plan. I currently work as a coal miner. Going to
21 school to become an engineer. But it seems like, from
22 my personal observation, the majority of us in favor of
23 the state or of the federal plan speak of the value of
24 air quality, and that's something that people on both
25 sides value.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 182 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Ironically, one of the major reasons that
2 people live in the communities that they do that provide
3 your energy, the reason they live there is because of
4 the high air quality.
5 One of the problems a lot of people have in
6 Salt Lake, they view bad air quality. They view Utah as
7 having bad air quality. But the air quality, that's --
8 you can see in Salt Lake Utah Valley, that's not coming
9 from those power plants. And more restrictions on those
10 power plants isn't going to change it. That's a
11 separate problem.
12 Also, most of the pollutants above these
13 national parks we are talking about, admittedly from the
14 directors of the parks, isn't coming from those power
15 plants either.
16 Utah has been working on improving the air
17 quality. They did shut down one plant. That is
18 significant. That does a lot more than just putting
19 retrofitting. That removes all of the pollutants from
20 that plant production.
21 They speak of the plants about them being
22 built in the seventies, complaining that they haven't
23 been retrofitted since the seventies. They have been
24 retrofitted in the 2000s. It is not the -- it is not
25 what's being implied.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 183 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 I value clean air. And you know, if I had to
2 live in Salt Lake in this air, I would probably be
3 willing to pay quite a bit to fix it. One of the
4 reasons I don't live here is because of that. And many
5 people on the -- who are proponents of more regulation,
6 they seem to have the mentality of all possible controls
7 at any cost. But we need to look at what the
8 improvements are going to be, when they are only
9 marginal improvements for a huge amount of money.
10 There is talk about naivety. The owners,
11 PacifiCorp, is not going to just pull out of their
12 pocket and pay for it. That money is going to get
13 passed on to all the rate payers. That money is going
14 to come from everyone else. If we are not going to get
15 value out of that money, there's no point in paying it.
16 If technology improves and we can get better
17 technology to make more meaningful progress on
18 pollution, that money is already spent is pretty much
19 wasted.
20 So anyway, I am in favor of the State
21 Implementation Plan, thanks.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Kate Bowman.
24 KATE BOWMAN: Hello. My name is Kate Bowman.
25 That's K-A-T-E, B-O-W-M-A-N. And I am here to represent
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 184 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Utah Clean Energy. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan
2 clean energy advocacy organization based in Salt Lake,
3 and we have been working in Utah for 15 years.
4 Thank you for coming to Salt Lake to hear
5 comments on this important issue. Utah Clean Energy
6 works to prevent wasteful energy use, create clean
7 energy and build smart energy features.
8 Climate change dictates that we make a quick
9 and proactive transition to a diverse portfolio of clean
10 energy resources, including distributing clean energy
11 efficiency resources. Utah Clean Energy's work to this
12 end is guided by a vision of healthy driving
13 communities, empowered and sustained by clean energy.
14 Our national parks are a unique and
15 spectacular part of Utah's character and are the
16 foundation of a exciting and growing recreation and
17 tourism industry in Utah.
18 Speaking personally, I, like many other
19 people, love living here in part because of the
20 incredible access to outdoor recreation in and around
21 our national parks, and air quality is one of the
22 reasons I am most concerned about continuing to live in
23 Utah.
24 Thus, in support of our vision of a healthy
25 and thriving community, Utah Clean Energy supports
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 185 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 strong protection from the harmful and haze-causing
2 pollution from Utah's Hunter and Huntington power
3 plants. Thank you.
4 (Applause).
5 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Miss
6 Bowman. Next, we can have Sarah Matsumoto. Sarah
7 Matsumoto. Samantha Weintraub.
8 SAMANTHA WEINTRAUB: Hi. My name is Samantha
9 Weintraub. S-A-M-A-N-T-H-A, W-E-I-N-T-R-A-U-B. Thanks
10 for giving me the opportunity to be here and make a
11 comment. I am an ecosystem ecologist with a Ph.D. in
12 ecosystem ecology and biochemistry. And --
13 (Reporter asked for repetition.)
14 SAMANTHA WEINTRAUB: Biochemistry is my
15 specialty. I'm a Ph.D. researcher, although I am not
16 here speaking from the university. I am here speaking
17 on my own behalf. So just going to touch on two issues.
18 One, I have some professional expertise and
19 that's the effects of the nitrogen deposition on desert
20 echo systems. And the other just has to do with, you
21 know, quality of life here in Utah, which I can just
22 speak to personally.
23 So desert ecosystems are very sensitive to
24 nitrogen pollution, nitrogen deposition, and this isn't
25 a regional issue in the intermountain west. These coal
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 186 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 powered plants are -- not only in desert ecosystems in
2 Utah but also throughout the Colorado Plateau. The
3 nitrogen generated here doesn't stay here overall. It's
4 all connected through our common air shed.
5 And so a range of ecosystem services can in
6 fact be affected by high levels of nitrogen deposition,
7 the ability of biological soil crusts to maintain the
8 soil and prevent erosion, plant community composition
9 and carbon sequestration.
10 There are a lot of issues. There's a -- we
11 call this a nitrogen cascade. Nitrogen deposition can
12 have a lot of cascading consequences on ecosystem system
13 composition and function.
14 And so I am concerned about high levels of
15 nitrogen deposition, and I see these pollution controls
16 as kind of a no-brainer way to reduce nitrogen
17 deposition in Utah and more broadly out in the Colorado
18 Plateau.
19 And so I think because it's an issue that's
20 broader than Utah, this justifies the federal government
21 being involved and not leaving this to be an issue for
22 the state only.
23 And then, of course, as so many people have
24 touched on, as a fairly new resident in Utah -- I have
25 lived here just under two years -- it's so clear why so
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 187 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 many people move here. Because of our amazing natural
2 resources, right? I have actually kind of fallen in
3 love with Utah surprisingly.
4 And so I would say nature here is our best
5 resource, and allowing that to become degraded, if there
6 is anything we can do to prevent that, we have to take
7 action and apply the most stringent controls we can,
8 especially when the technology is available and other
9 states are doing it.
10 So thank you so much. Have a good night.
11 (Applause).
12 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Tim Wagner.
13 TIM WAGNER: Good evening. Thank you. My
14 name is Tim Wagner. I serve as the executive director
15 for Utah Physicians For Healthy Environment here in Salt
16 Lake City. We are an organization made up of about 350
17 medical professionals around the state, and several
18 thousand supporter members and friends and just
19 downright good people who support the things we do.
20 I am not going to talk about the things I was
21 going to plan on talking about this evening because I
22 think you have heard a lot of good reasons why so many
23 people support the federal plan, which would require
24 Rocky Mountain Power to install SCR on these projects.
25 We support almost any policy that's going to
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 188 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 advocate for the protection of public health and put
2 that as a number one priority, and that obviously needs
3 to be number one, we truly believe.
4 I do want to talk a little bit about the
5 health of some of the residents who live in the vicinity
6 of Hunter and Huntington coal plants. I did a little
7 bit of research, and based on some health statistics put
8 out by the state, Carbon County is rated 27th out of 27
9 counties in Utah for the health of its citizens. Its
10 rate of premature death is more than twice the national
11 average.
12 Emery County isn't quite as high. It's rated
13 18th out of 27 counties, and it's rate of premature
14 death of its citizens is about 50 percent higher than
15 what the national average is, even much higher than
16 Utah's average. That concerns me.
17 I am not going to stand up here and say that
18 the reason for this is because of the pollution coming
19 from Hunter and Huntington coal plants, but I believe
20 they are a factor. I think that needs to be considered.
21 But I also want to say that I believe that so
22 many that have been here before you before today are
23 using the argument this is about jobs versus clean air.
24 I think that's bunk. That's not what this is about.
25 And I think those who believe that the jobs
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 189 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 are going to go away, they have been led to believe a
2 false scare put forth by those who don't want to spend
3 any money to clean those plants up, where we are talking
4 about spending 400 million dollars, 700 hundred million
5 dollars or somewhere in between. We are talking about
6 one huge job training for Carbon and Emery County.
7 That's a lot of jobs, and the multiplier
8 effect that would have a tremendous impact on long-term
9 effects of the economy for Emery and Carbon County. So
10 I believe we need to be considering what would the means
11 of cleaning up the air but also what it could do for the
12 local economies down there. That to me is a win-win for
13 everybody. Thank you.
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Gabrielle Roh.
15 GABRIELLE ROH: My name is Gabrielle Roh.
16 G-A-B-R-I-E-L-L-E, R-O-H. Thank you for this public
17 forum. I would like to reject the state's proposal and
18 urge the EPA to adopt the second FIP. As a fifth grade
19 teacher and a grandmother of 11, I want to add my voice
20 to those who advocate for more stringent emission
21 controls for the Hunter and Huntington power plants.
22 I want to give an example of why I feel like
23 we need the EPA's presence. Several years ago, I had 30
24 of my fifth grade students write personal letters asking
25 Governor Herbert to persuade MagCorp of America to
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 190 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 follow the EPA guidelines for their smokestacks. In
2 case anyone's not aware, we have had the number one air
3 polluter in the nation right down the road from us in
4 the west desert. My students never received personal
5 answers.
6 We had always had the tradition to write
7 letters to the president, and I thought, how cool.
8 Let's write to the governor and talk to him about
9 something that was an important issue. My students did
10 not receive personal letters. I received a nasty gram
11 from the governor.
12 My superintendent and my principal contacted
13 me asking me why would I bother teaching my children
14 about something that was an important source of income.
15 I should spend my time teaching the children how
16 important carpooling is. So instead of looking at the
17 worst contributor to air pollution in the United States
18 for a decade, probably more like 20 years, I was
19 reprimanded and made to feel like I was going to lose my
20 job.
21 I share this to let you know our governor is
22 not interested in clean air. He gives lip service to
23 it. We need the EPA to be our voice. We need the EPA
24 to stand up for our health, our livelihoods, our future
25 generations, our health and quality of life.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 191 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 I am not advocating closing the plants. I am
2 asking the EPA to support our desire for cleaner air and
3 a better environment. This means adopting Option 2.
4 (Applause).
5 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you, Ms. Roh.
6 Next, Dan Robrecht and family.
7 DAN ROBRECHT: So we are Dan, Rebecca, Rose,
8 Agnes and Collin Robrecht. R-O-B-R-E-C-H-T. We are
9 locals here. I am a physician. But I'll leave comments
10 about my son's asthma and the effects that our air
11 pollution has on that to our local air pollution
12 discussions.
13 I also am not in the best position to speak on
14 the best ways to keep our national parks pristine,
15 although I understand that nitrogen oxides are an
16 important -- have an important role to play in that.
17 What I did want to speak more on was, you
18 know, as a family we have sat on the red rocks and
19 looked under Delicate Arch at the distant, snow-covered
20 mountains. We have climbed Angels Landing and
21 Observation Point, and these are the memories that our
22 lives are made of.
23 What it comes to, what I hope to leave behind
24 and the whole dream that the national parks are, I
25 certainly hope we can leave them in the same wondrous
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 192 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 state that I have found them throughout my life.
2 REBECCA ROBRECHT: Thank you.
3 (Applause).
4 ROSE ROBRECHT: Rose Robrecht. But I just
5 wanted to say that recently I was -- I went -- I had an
6 experience at the Havasu by the Grand Canyon, and we
7 looked -- when we were at the top of the canyon, we
8 looked over, and it was very like foggy. You couldn't
9 see all the way across, like my mom had described it to
10 me previously.
11 So I think that if we can do something to
12 improve the state of our air, that would be very
13 wonderful as it's a miraculous view. Thank you.
14 (Applause).
15 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next, if we could have
16 Lindsay Beebe.
17 LINDSAY BEEBE: Hi. My name is Lindsay Beebe.
18 L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, B-E-E-B-E. I am a resident of Salt Lake
19 City. I work for the Sierra Club, but I am here
20 representing myself. And I moved to Utah about five
21 years ago, not expecting to fall in love with it as much
22 as I have. And that's all due to the really remarkable
23 landscape and beautiful just scenery that we have here
24 in the state.
25 I am here today to urge the EPA to implement
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 193 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 the best available retrofit technology for Hunter and
2 Huntington coal-fired power plants, the only two power
3 plants in Utah that are eligible to be considered under
4 the Regional Haze Rule of the Clean Air Act.
5 According to the EPA's own designation, for
6 many of our neighboring western states and at over 250
7 plants across the country, the best available retrofit
8 technology to address nitrogen oxide pollution is
9 selective catalytic reduction, or SCR.
10 The state's current proposal that aims to
11 substitute cuts at the Carbon power plant, which is a
12 non-BART-eligible plant, does not satisfy requirements
13 for the better than BART alternative, and should be
14 disapproved. The state's plan would not result in
15 greater visibility improvements at our national parks
16 and therefore should be rejected.
17 The state overestimates costs and
18 underestimates visibility improvements, in its --
19 according to the EPA's own analysis. And in reality the
20 cost per ton to remove nitrogen oxides from Hunter and
21 Huntington are equivalent or actually well below that of
22 similar plants in Wyoming and Arizona where the EPA has
23 found SCRs to be warranted.
24 The EPA has proposed two plans to address
25 nitrogen oxide, but there's really only one choice that
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 194 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 would clear the air for Utah parks and citizens. I urge
2 the EPA to please require selective catalytic reduction
3 for our parks, for our lungs, and for our vibrant
4 recreation and tourism economy that depends on clear
5 skies. Thank you.
6 (Applause).
7 HEARING OFFICE SUTIN: Thank you. Sven
8 Solvik.
9 SVEN SOLVIK: Hi. I'm Sven Solvik. S-V-E-N,
10 S-O-L-V-I-K. The corporate owners of Hunter and
11 Huntington plants are not the only corporations that
12 feel that profit is more important than healthy, clean
13 air. Recent revelations of Volkswagen Corporation's
14 deceptions regarding diesel emissions sparked worldwide
15 outrage.
16 The primary pollutant emitted by these cars
17 was nitrogen oxide, which was 70 times greater than the
18 EPA was led to believe. California's, oh, no, excuse
19 me. Volkswagen will be paying hundreds of millions and
20 possibly billions of dollars in fines or penalties as a
21 result of these deceptions.
22 California's Department of Environmental
23 Quality estimated that 5,000 tons of nitrogen oxide
24 emissions per year will be produced from the half
25 million Volkswagen diesels in the state. Hunter,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 195 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Huntington plants produce more than three times the
2 amounts of annual emissions as these 500,000 dirty
3 diesels.
4 So the question is, I don't think the EPA's
5 going to let Volkswagen get away with this kind of
6 nitrogen oxide pollution. Are they going to let the
7 owners of Hunter and Huntington produce three times as
8 much nitrogen oxide? Thank you.
9 (Applause).
10 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Elizabeth Watson.
11 ELIZABETH WATSON: It's Elizabeth,
12 E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H. Watson, W-A-T-S-O-N. So I have
13 actually worked for the chemical industry. I have a
14 bachelor's degree with a major in chemistry. Worked for
15 chemical industry for about -- almost 25 years.
16 And I have worked with the environmental
17 community. I have worked with EPA. I have worked with,
18 you name it, in the Washington, D.C. area. And I worked
19 on stratospheric ozone and global climate change issue
20 for about 10 of those, more than 10 of those years.
21 And I feel -- and I am here now. And forget
22 my children. My grandchildren are here, my two
23 granddaughters.
24 And I think that we have got the technology.
25 And I think we need to implement it, wherever we can.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 196 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 And I believe it's cost of doing business. I think if
2 it benefits both the natural resources that we are all
3 drawn to here and if it can in any way increase the
4 health of this community, I think we have got to do
5 whatever we can, whenever we can because there are so
6 few opportunities in this state.
7 And I think what industry needs to understand
8 is that is good business. And at the end of the day, it
9 limits their liability. And when we can all get on the
10 same page, I am certain we can -- my father was a
11 machinist. I understand unions. I understand having
12 jobs, second generation, Italian immigrant. And I think
13 we've got to come up with win-wins. We all have to be
14 on the same page.
15 And I think that the coal miners may think
16 that they have to give up their job or they have to give
17 up their pay, possible pay increases or benefits. And I
18 think that that's just false thinking.
19 I think at the end of the day we all are going
20 to go down with this or we're going to go up with this.
21 And I really believe we have a really good opportunity
22 for EPA to come in and go ahead and implement their
23 plan. Because without it, I think that the first
24 step -- and I think without it I think the rest of us
25 that live in this valley that have all kinds of health
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 197 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 issues because of the haze, a lot of it is industry
2 pollution.
3 This is one of the dirtiest places I've
4 actually been in. And I have been even in Katmandu
5 where it's two stroke engines, and we've -- I've been to
6 Houston, New Jersey, New York state. And we can do a
7 whole lot better. And there's no excuse not to.
8 And at the end of the day I think it's good
9 business. It's ethical and it's moral, and at the end
10 of the day it reduces industry's liability and they
11 should care about that over everything else. And it's
12 their legacy, and it's ours too. Thank you.
13 (Applause).
14 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Dr. Howie
15 Garber.
16 HOWIE GARBER: I'm Howie Garber, H-O-W-I-E,
17 G-A-R-B-E-R. I am a physician and a board member of Utah
18 Physicians For Healthy Environment. Requiring Rocky
19 Mountain Power to clean up their act has obvious health
20 benefits for the people who live near these power
21 plants. Keeping the status quo benefits only Rocky
22 Mountain Power.
23 Using best available technology confers health
24 benefits and clears the air for all the citizens of the
25 world who visit our wonderful national parks. Air
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 198 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 pollution, particularly regional haze and mercury
2 toxicity, are not local problems. They're regional
3 problems and appropriately regulated only by the EPA.
4 Isn't it time for our state DAQ to show that
5 individuals matter more than special interests? Thank
6 you.
7 (Applause).
8 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Okay. Next, can we
9 have Dr. Brian Moench.
10 BRIAN MOENCH: Thank you. I am Dr. Brian
11 Moench, president of the Utah Physicians for a Healthy
12 Environment. Our physicians group is profoundly
13 disappointed that our state agency has endorsed the plan
14 that does not require SCR installation at the Hunter and
15 Huntington plants, with the justification that it would
16 cost Rocky Mountain Power 340 million dollars.
17 But our state agency knows full well there is
18 considerable economic and human cost to the pollution
19 from these plants. This may be a hearing on regional
20 haze, but that haze has serious public health
21 consequences. In fact, a 2010 study tracking deaths,
22 heart attacks, asthma attacks, and hospital admissions
23 precipitated by pollution from just these two plants,
24 concluded that the economic repercussion of these
25 outcomes cost the victims 212 million dollars per year,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 199 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 including 27 annual deaths. Over 20 years that's over
2 4.2 billion dollars and 540 lives lost.
3 So DAQ has endorsed a plan that excuses Rocky
4 Mountain Power from having to spend 340 million but
5 hands to the public a bill of over 4.2 billion and ends
6 the lives of 540 people.
7 Yet even these calculations are a significant
8 underestimation because they do not quantitate the many
9 other health consequences that have been proven to be
10 precipitated from these plants' pollution since that
11 study was published, such as a myriad of pregnancy
12 complications and poor pregnancy outcomes, Cancer,
13 chromosomal damages that can be passed on to subsequent
14 generations, and neurodegenerative diseases like
15 diminished intelligence, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's,
16 attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and even
17 autism.
18 These plants emit about 200 pounds of mercury
19 into the atmosphere every year, 4,000 pounds in 20
20 years. SCR can be expected to reduce not just the NOx
21 from these plants but also the mercury.
22 Several years ago, the CDC and the EPA
23 concluded that one in six American women of
24 child-bearing age harbor enough endogenous mercury that
25 it would be expected to cause harm to her baby's brain
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 200 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 development.
2 The U.S. geological survey tested fish from
3 300 streams throughout the country in 2009 and found
4 mercury in every single fish. As of 2014, 24 waterways
5 in Utah had advice against eating the fish because of
6 high levels of mercury.
7 The Great Salt Lake already has the highest
8 levels of mercury in any inland body of water in the
9 country. The country's only mercury advisories against
10 eating waterfowl are right here in Utah.
11 The nation is currently looking at the
12 lead-contaminated water scandal in Flint, Michigan and
13 realizing that government officials at the state, local
14 and national levels ended up causing irreversible
15 neurologic harm, which is a euphemism for brain damage,
16 to thousands of children because of incompetence,
17 ignorance, arrogance and callousness towards the
18 victims.
19 Mercury is by far the most neurotoxic
20 substance we know, up to 1000 times more toxic to fetal
21 brain developments than lead. If the EPA allows a plan
22 that does not factor in health protection, they will be
23 encouraging the same kind of perception that our
24 government doesn't really care about the people it
25 should be serving. Thank you.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 201 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 (Applause).
2 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next, if
3 we could have Patrick Sullivan.
4 PATRICK SULLIVAN: Hello. I'm Patrick
5 Sullivan. P-A-T-R-I-C-K, S-U-L-L-I-V-A-N. I am Utah --
6 or a resident of Utah. I am here to tell you about my
7 personal experiences. I am one of the stats you have
8 heard about tonight.
9 I've grown up, born and raised with asthma.
10 It's not a big deal for me because I have had it my
11 whole life, but it has had such consequence as me
12 missing recess in elementary school, finding I can't run
13 up a hill without having to go to ER, worrying about
14 getting a cold because of my respiratory problems will
15 exacerbate that, Just crazy stuff. So that's just me
16 personally.
17 As you have heard, that's not me alone in the
18 state. Actually it's sort of fairly common. A lot of
19 my friends have asthma. It's ridiculous. And as I am
20 sure you know, there is the strong correlation of these
21 pollutants that come out of the power plants and asthma.
22 Wherever these pollutants are, asthma increases in the
23 population. And so that for medical reasons, that's why
24 I would urge you to vote for the Clean Parks Plan.
25 Now, on to reasons or, yeah, reasons we can
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 202 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 all look to. Excuse me. Now on to -- excuse me, I'm
2 sorry. Public speaking. Anyway, the visibility issue.
3 I consider myself a bit of an outdoors enthusiast and as
4 of recently, because of my medicine, that would have
5 been considered an oxymoron, because I also have asthma.
6 But we have the technology to fix me. So why not fix
7 these plants?
8 I grew up hiking all around southern Utah,
9 whether it be national parks, state parks, random desert
10 patches. And a common theme on all of these trips is my
11 dad would often say, "Well, Pat I used to be able to see
12 clear over to Henry Mountains." Or we could see 200
13 miles past where can you see now.
14 But on a clear day you will be able to see it.
15 A sad reality is I've had three or four of those clear
16 days in my life, and I wish I could have more of those.
17 I wish I could enjoy these views, and I wish everyone in
18 the state to enjoy views that this natural landscape
19 provides us.
20 And so for these reasons, I would urge you to
21 go for the Clean Parks Plan. Yeah. Thank you.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Mary Paul.
24 MARY PAUL: My name is Mary Paul. M-A-R-Y,
25 P-A-U-L. I'm a citizen. I am also a 4th generation
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 203 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Utahan, and like my pioneering ancestors I'm hoping to
2 help forge positive change for future generations.
3 I am not here to disrespect the hard working
4 coal industry workers in attendance. My own sister was
5 a coal miner for a number of years. Why I am here is to
6 stand up for all citizens, in particular our most
7 vulnerable, the poor, the elderly and children.
8 My own daughter suffers from pollution-induced
9 asthma and respiratory infections. Every day we commute
10 across the valley so I may work and my daughter may go
11 to school somewhere above the smog level.
12 Unfortunately, many citizens do not have such luxury.
13 It is imperative that immediate effective measures are
14 taken to put Utah's coal plants on track with current
15 standards 250 other facilities are already meeting
16 across the country.
17 It is unacceptable for Utah's taxpaying
18 citizens, such as myself and my family and my loved
19 ones, to suffer debilitating medical bills and lost
20 wages from caring for loved ones because coal industry
21 executives refuse to take responsibility for the
22 hazardous byproducts of their business. Thank you.
23 (Applause).
24 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. It's 7:30.
25 We're going to take a 10 minute break so the court
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 204 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 reporter can rest for a minute. We'll be back in 10
2 minutes.
3 We did announce that the hearing was until
4 eight o'clock. We have quite a few people that still
5 would like to speak. So we're going to stay until 8:30.
6 If folks can stay until then and give their testimony,
7 that would be great. If you can't, we understand and
8 we're sorry. We did our best to try and accommodate
9 everybody. But hopefully you can stay until 8:30 if you
10 want to give comments. Thank you.
11 (Recess from 7:34 p.m. to 8:34 p.m.)
12 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: If everyone could have
13 a seat, we're going to get started again. If I can have
14 Katie Christensen.
15 KATIE CHRISTENSEN: My name is Katie
16 Christensen. K-A-T-I-E, C-H-R-I-S-T-E-N-S-E-N. And
17 tonight you have all been presented by the -- with the
18 facts about our competent air community. You may have
19 committed them to memory. By now you've heard them all.
20 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Ms. Christensen, I'm
21 sorry to interrupt. The folks who are not listening,
22 please leave the room. Thank you. I'm sorry. Go
23 ahead.
24 MS. CHRISTENSEN: You have also heard from
25 honest workers who are afraid of maybe losing their jobs
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 205 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 or have taken cuts in pay. I'd like to offer an
2 additional perspective. When we think of the word
3 industry, we think of coal or we think of oil. However,
4 there is another industry we may have overlooked this
5 evening. I believe the solutions are not either/or but
6 both, and so I appeal to your sense of fairness tonight.
7 I'd like to speak as an ally of another
8 industry and that is tourism. In Utah we value being
9 good neighbors. And we are not talking about shutting
10 down coal plants. We are not talking about limiting
11 jobs. This is simply a question of asking industry
12 executives to be good neighbors by installing up-to-date
13 reasonable pollution control. This is the same
14 technology already used in over 250 plants.
15 If coal plants are going to be allowed to
16 operate near national parks, they must take every
17 reasonable precaution to mitigate the effects to those
18 parks. If the coal industry is going to center the
19 discussion around the economic impact as our primary
20 value, then we must not allow one industry to stamp out
21 another.
22 According to reports by the University of Utah
23 business school entitled the State of Utah's Tourism,
24 Travel and Recreation Industry, nonresident tourists and
25 travelers spent 7.5 billion dollars in the Utah economy
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 206 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 in 2013. Travellers spending generated a record 1.2
2 billion dollars in state and local taxes. For context
3 that's higher than California, Texas, Illinois and even
4 New York generated in travel-based employment.
5 More than 40 percent of the total private jobs
6 in Daggett, Garfield, Grand, Kane, Wayne and Summit
7 counties were in the leisure and hospitality sector in
8 2013. Tourism-related revenue grew 22 percent from 2009
9 to 2013. As long as our parks exist, tourism will be a
10 profoundly important part of Utah's economy.
11 Should the guests of Utah, our tourists from
12 all over the world, find the beauty they come to see
13 compromised by coal generated haze, they will be less
14 inclined to come again, and the economic impact will
15 potentially -- it will impact the tourism industry,
16 dwindling it because people will not want to come back.
17 They will not want to come from all over the world just
18 to see haze.
19 I do want to add on a personal note that we
20 know better than mercury and we know better than air
21 pollution. We know better than those things, and we
22 have the technology to protect people.
23 Speaking on a very personal note, I want to
24 add, once you lose your health, you don't get it back.
25 And if you get it back, you may not have what you had
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 207 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 before. To me, it's unthinkable that industry would
2 battle installing pollution control devices when they
3 could impact the health of children, elderly, and even
4 young adults aren't immune from the impacts. So thank
5 you for taking our comments.
6 (Applause).
7 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Brandy Hill.
8 BRANDY HILL: Hello. My name is Brandy Hill.
9 I am speaking on behalf of myself. I'm a graduate
10 student at the University of Utah, and my focus is in
11 environmental chemistry and sustainability. I'm not a
12 Utah native. I'm from Michigan, and my family and I
13 moved here six years ago. And I have never seen air
14 pollution anywhere that I have seen like here. It's --
15 it's something that we worry about all the time in our
16 family.
17 But aside from that, just in my graduate
18 school study, I've learned a lot about the EPA and the
19 role that environmental policy has in our nation. And
20 just simply put, the -- our air doesn't have state
21 boundaries. And based on that premise alone, I think
22 that the EPA should be involved here in Utah and that
23 the EPA should be involved in every state in a
24 collaboration across the nation to help improve
25 technologies to reduce emissions. Thank you.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 208 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 (Applause).
2 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Kyle
3 Hayes.
4 KYLE HAYES: My name is Kyle Hayes. No
5 relation to regional haze. I am a student at the
6 University of Utah. Recently our sustainable campus
7 initiative fund issued a grant for $11,000 for air masks
8 so that students on red quality air days can take
9 transportation, biking, walking, and it can be healthy
10 for us.
11 Now, it's my hope that you would implement the
12 federal plan over the state plan. Many reasons. Chief
13 among them would be that this will be a statement of the
14 people, of the direction that we are looking to move.
15 We will be going over the head of our state
16 environmental agencies, which are very reluctant to
17 march forward, towards a goal that's been stated by our
18 president, that's been stated by many of the countries
19 of the world at our Paris conference, and it's about
20 time that Utah gets involved.
21 In regard to the lack of jobs in the coal
22 industry, my rebuttal to that would be the fastest
23 growing industry in the country which is renewables.
24 So it's my hope that we will adopt the Clean
25 Parks Plan and we will no longer have reasons to wear
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 209 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 these ridiculous air masks just to ride a bike during
2 the winter. Thank you.
3 (Applause).
4 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Marykate Glenn.
5 MARYKATE GLENN: Thank you. My name is
6 Marykate Glenn. M-A-R-Y-K-A-T-E, G-L-E-N-N. And I
7 biked here with one of those ridiculous face masks on.
8 It helped a little bit.
9 I have heard wonderful arguments from
10 everyone, I won't repeat the points that they made. I
11 am also compelled by the argument that the costs of
12 health care are not taken into account. The costs of
13 environmental resources being lost are not taken into
14 account. Therefore, I would urge EPA to enforce the FIP
15 plan.
16 I have an old truck, and to pass emissions, I
17 have to, you know, replace -- I have a catalytic
18 converter. I have to have regular maintenance and
19 upkeep to do my part. And I would hope that the EPA
20 would enforce the coal companies to do the same. Thank
21 you.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Fulassi
24 Fashawn. Fulassi Fashawn. Nathan Gilbert.
25 NATHAN GILBERT: Hello. My name is Nathan
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 210 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 Gilbert. N-A-T-H-A-N, G-I-L-B-E-R-T. Forgive -- thank
2 you for having this forum, and please forgive me for
3 speaking extemporaneously on this topic tonight.
4 I am originally from eastern Kentucky, The
5 coal section of the state. I have lived in Utah for 10
6 years, over 10 years, and I fell in love with the
7 beautiful vistas and the natural wonders that are
8 available in this state. And I strongly support Option
9 2, the Clean Parks Plan, that the EPA is proposing.
10 I know we have heard a lot of arguments today.
11 There's not much more I can add, but it's not going to
12 stop me from talking anyway.
13 So business is always going to take the path
14 of least resistance. In this case that means what's
15 going to eat less into their profits. So of course they
16 are naturally going to be against any kind of
17 regulation, even though we have technology to improve
18 the air quality of the state in that specific area of
19 the state.
20 I'll go out on a limb here to say that I don't
21 think anyone in this room has personal power over what
22 Rocky Mountain Power does. About the only time they
23 care what I think is if my bill is past due. That said,
24 collectively we have power through the United States
25 Government, of which you are the environmental
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 211 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 regulatory body, and I would urge you to enforce Option
2 2 and follow our collective will.
3 So again, I thank you for this public forum,
4 and I urge the Option 2 Clean Parks Plan. Thank you.
5 (Applause).
6 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Next Nicholas
7 Bradberry.
8 NICHOLAS BRADBERRY: Hi. My name is Nicholas
9 Bradberry. N-I-C-H-O-L-A-S. Bradberry,
10 B-R-A-D-B-E-R-R-Y. I'm a citizen, and I am not going
11 to -- I am going to talk on behalf of most of the
12 younger generation that is eventually going to have to
13 inherit these issues from coal emissions being generated
14 and destroying our environment.
15 I am not going to really try to voice my
16 concerns on the effects due to pollution. The EPA, I am
17 sure, have heard the conversations for both for and
18 against. And Utah people have done an amazing job of
19 voicing all the concerns that we have about this issue.
20 I want to go and say, I do not blame coal
21 miners and I do not blame the coal industry for the
22 emissions created currently. I understand why coal
23 miners are fighting to keep power on and to keep their
24 jobs that allow them to provide for their families. I
25 would even go as far as to say as the coal industry has
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 212 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 done us helpful in terms of getting us to where we are
2 currently. I understand that these families are
3 Americans just as much as us.
4 I can understand the need for clean air. So
5 at this time, I reject the state plan but at the same
6 time I reject the federal EPA plan. The entire state of
7 Utah will benefit from removing these pollutants and gas
8 for the long term.
9 However, I do not agree with the EPA ruling in
10 the situation. I think EPA has not done enough to stand
11 up for the common people. The requirements to install
12 these air quality improvements to coal plants Hunter 1
13 and 2 will not solve our problem, and they will
14 eventually lead to higher prices for the production of
15 electricity in the state of Utah.
16 I feel this does not address the actual issue
17 we're trying to do at the moment, which is reverse the
18 decline of air quality, not reduce. So instead I offer
19 an alternative plan that the EPA should take under
20 advisement. The goal for installing selective catalytic
21 conduction in coal plants would reduce pollutants but
22 not rid the people of them entirely.
23 I would suggest that the part of the 400
24 million to 700 million dollars that these plants would
25 use to retrofit their old plants be put -- be instead
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 213 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 put towards subsidizing the production of clean energy
2 like solar, winds, geothermal, tidal and nuclear
3 energies.
4 Additionally, part of the funds should go to
5 research and development of clean transportation methods
6 to further reduce the air quality -- overall air quality
7 climate change affects.
8 Lastly, a portion of this money should be
9 given back to the community for their health concerns
10 and environmental damage that has been caused.
11 This has to be matched with a reduction of
12 coal plants over the next five years to be replaced
13 entirely with the methods already stated. It's been
14 proven time and time again this will create more jobs
15 for Utahans and provide the families working for coal
16 plants with an alternative for there jobs.
17 This is what we call a win-win scenario. The
18 entire community will benefit from these changes. We
19 don't have time to revisit this issue in several years.
20 The change has to be made now while the issue is still
21 correctible.
22 We are the taxpayers. We are Americans. We
23 decide what is done with our money, and we decide what
24 is done with our land. Thank you.
25 (Applause).
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 214 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Warren
2 Becroft.
3 WARREN BECROFT: Hello. My name is Warren
4 Becroft. I am the president of the University of Utah
5 Student Clean Air Network and a bartender here in Salt
6 Lake. I -- with a new federal moratorium on coal leases
7 on federal lands, the future of the coal industry in
8 Utah is limited to the extent of existing leases on
9 public lands.
10 With this in mind, I support the Federal
11 Implementation Plan and reject the SIP or the State
12 Implementation Plan on the grounds that the State
13 Implementation Plan unproportionally places burden upon
14 citizens to reduce emissions while allowing industry to
15 increase emissions over the same period.
16 The sulfur-containing aerosols that are the
17 primary factor in scattering light and decreasing
18 visibility because of air pollution are caused
19 predominantly by coal extraction and combustion. That's
20 all I have to say. Thank you.
21 (Applause).
22 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Rebekah
23 Boyd.
24 REBEKAH BOYD: My name is Rebekah Boyd.
25 R-E-B-E-K-A-H, B-O-Y-D. I'm a student at BYU, and I am
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 215 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 part of the Echo Response Club there. So one of my kind
2 of mottos is to be happy and go outside. And when I
3 learned about the air quality in Utah and how it's some
4 of, if not the worst, air quality in the U.S., I was
5 very concerned and shocked.
6 And as I -- since I have grown up here and I
7 spend countless hours outside, I love the national
8 parks. I visit them multiple times a year. Many of my
9 strongest memories have been formed there. And I would
10 just like to be able to be confident and secure in
11 knowing that I can continue to live here and eventually
12 raise a family here.
13 And so I do not support the State
14 Implementation Plan, and I would like the Clean Parks
15 Act to go forward. So thank you.
16 (Applause).
17 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Dave Pacheco.
18 DAVE PACHECO: Can I give my time to someone
19 who has been waiting longer than me?
20 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: If you would like.
21 DAVE PACHECO: Sure. I would like to defer my
22 time to Beth Haynes here.
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Beth Haynes.
24 BETH HAYNES: Thank you. Yes, I was here at
25 one o'clock and have delayed after a couple of hours.
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 216 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 So I appreciate your making time for me.
2 My name is Beth Haynes. B-E-T-H, H-A-Y-N-E-S.
3 I was born and raised in Illinois, but about 25 years
4 ago I traveled west for the first time to the Rocky
5 Mountain National Park, and that trip made a lifelong
6 impression on me. I became enthralled with the
7 mountains, wildlife and wild places. I vowed to visit
8 all the national parks in the United States and so far
9 have made it to 24. I also dreamt that some day would I
10 live near mountains in wonderful landscapes like that.
11 About 18 years ago I discovered my inner
12 athlete, and I have run many marathons, triathlons,
13 kayaking and you get the idea. I love being outdoors
14 and active. The last year life events led me to the
15 conclusion that it's now or never.
16 So after living for 50 years in Illinois, I
17 resigned my job of 21-plus years, put my house on the
18 market and said good bye to my wonderful friends and
19 family. I arrived in Utah in June, after visiting
20 Yellowstone and the Tetons on my way. I took some time
21 between jobs and have visited all five of the national
22 parks in Utah since June.
23 What amazing, unique landscapes that we have
24 here. I can't even explain the joy I get from simply
25 seeing the mountains every day, whether from my house or
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 217 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 being immersed in them.
2 It shocks me that air pollution is such a
3 hotly debated topic here. Personally it's very
4 upsetting to consider not being able to run outside
5 because of poor air quality when I moved here for the
6 outdoor recreation. And it's always in the back of my
7 mind. Is this the day I'll breathe that particle that
8 will cause me to have cancer 10 years down the road or a
9 heart condition?
10 Aside from the health threats, I remember when
11 we were at Bryce this summer looking at unbelievably
12 far-reaching vistas, and my partner informed or
13 explained to me the reason I couldn't clearly see Powell
14 Point was not the space between us, but due to air
15 pollution, the haze. It was then I noticed a slightly
16 brownish color in the air.
17 How could this country with so much raw
18 beauty, places that are completely unique, which have
19 been set aside, preserved and protected as national
20 parks for all of us, be infiltrated by air pollution?
21 This denies everyone, whether traveling from Illinois,
22 Utah or another country, the opportunity to view our
23 national parks for the reasons they were created.
24 They have value, both intrinsic and economic.
25 Who would visit the rim of the Grand Canyon if you
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 218 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 couldn't see down into it? Who would trek to Angels
2 Landing at Zion National Park if all you could see was
3 the rock you stood on.
4 These power plants have an opportunity to make
5 a big difference in our future for either good or bad,
6 and I ask that you choose for the good. Thank you.
7 (Applause).
8 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Next is
9 Samantha, and I'm sorry. I can't see your last name.
10 SAMANTHA HAWKINS: Hawkins?
11 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Yeah, Hawkins, sorry.
12 SAMANTHA HAWKINS: Hi. I'm Samantha Hawkins.
13 S-A-M-A-N-T-H-A, H-A-W-K-I-N-S. I am here to urge you
14 to reject the state proposal. I am a college student.
15 I go to Brigham Young University. And the outdoor
16 recreation industry has been a huge part of my entire
17 life. It's shaped my world view. I have grown up going
18 to the national parks a couple times a month, and I am a
19 big part of the outdoor recreation community.
20 I think that it's important to recognize that
21 these are not just parks for the outdoor recreation
22 community though. They are Utah's lands and they are
23 also America's lands. And every American should have
24 the opportunity to go to Bryce Canyon and look at one of
25 the best night skies in the entire world. And in
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 219 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 addition to that, they are not only America's lands, but
2 we need do our part as part of the worldwide community.
3 As you know, COP21, Paris climate change
4 conference, 200 countries committed to reduce their
5 emissions, and though it has yet to be ratified by
6 Congress, we still have -- I think we have a commitment
7 to keep to our world to reduce our emissions.
8 So I would urge you to reject the state
9 proposal as part of a local community and the American
10 community and the worldwide community. Thank you.
11 (Applause).
12 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Chad Taylor. Chad
13 Taylor. Brian Ellison.
14 BRIAN ELLISON: Thanks. My name is Brian
15 Ellison, second generation Utahan, and I live in Salt
16 Lake City. I want to come today to show my support for
17 the Clean Parks Plan. I've really loved southern Utah
18 for a long time. I was fortunate enough, starting when
19 I was three, my parents bought some land down there, and
20 we used to go down and camp when I was a little kid. So
21 I was lucky enough to have a lot of great adventures in
22 the Capitol Reef, hiking there, playing in the mud,
23 whatever, all the fun things kids want to do.
24 But I think I started really falling in love
25 with the place as I was a little older. As a teenager
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 220 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 in college I got to go down there on my own and on
2 different times would get up on top of these mountains,
3 and I could see so far, you know.
4 Just one time in particular, I was up above
5 Capitol Reef I could see out past Capitol Reef, I could
6 see the Henry Mountains, I could see out there towards
7 the desert, and I could see kind of the curvature of the
8 earth. And I just realized how blessed this is.
9 There's been a lot of times I have gone back
10 to some of those places, but most of the time it's hazy,
11 because you can't see that kind of distance. I mean the
12 view is still wonderful, but it seems like, you know,
13 for whatever reason, you got to have the jet stream
14 going in the right direction on the right day to really
15 get the best view out of those places.
16 But, as I said, I fell in love with that, and
17 I like it so much my wife and I actually got married
18 down in Capitol Reef. Something important to us there.
19 We took our family down. We wanted to share that with
20 all of them. Besides saying thanks for my parents for
21 all they had done to get us down there, something we
22 could share with all our cousins and everyone else in
23 the family.
24 Today I am continuing to share the love of the
25 place with my children. I have a three and
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 221 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 six-year-old, and when I am gone, the land that's down
2 there will belong to them. You know, I'm hoping they
3 will continue to pass it on through the family, and, you
4 know, hopefully they will get to see those really clear
5 views on every day, not just the day when the wind's
6 blowing the right way.
7 I know that miners and other people talk a lot
8 about jobs and the economy and how that's important to
9 them, and I understand that. My grandpa, he worked
10 mining in uranium in southern Utah, and he was -- he had
11 three kids, and that was how they paid the bills. They
12 were actually living in a tent out by the mine, and that
13 was how he got his money and how he ended up, you know,
14 raising a good family. So I understand how people, you
15 know, want those jobs and want to keep them.
16 But I've also seen from my personal experience
17 in Torrey, just outside of Capitol Reef, how much
18 tourism can really change an economy there. When I was
19 young, you know, I remember the population signs at a
20 hundred on this side of town and there was one gas
21 station, one hotel and one restaurant. They were closed
22 a lot of time during the year. Well, now there's
23 several. Probably have a dozen hotels, dozen bed and
24 breakfast, many restaurants, coffee shops. There's
25 tourist people who take you rock climbing or mountain
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 222 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 biking or ATVs.
2 So I really think that the -- when it comes to
3 looking at the economy, tourism will continue to grow
4 forever, whereas a lot of the natural resources will go
5 away and can actually cause problems to, you know,
6 discourage the tourism.
7 So I want to show my support to the Clean
8 Parks Plan be adopted. Thank you.
9 (Applause).
10 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. Is it Jim
11 Webster?
12 JIM WEBSTER: My name is Jim Webster. J-I-M,
13 W-E-B-S-T-E-R, like the dictionary. I am a resident of
14 Salt Lake, environmental planner. I am a graduate in
15 landscape architecture and environmental planning from
16 University of Oregon and Harvard. I have been working
17 in the coal industry as a planner. I have looked at
18 alternative sites for residential living in Kemmerer,
19 and also in Carbon County. So I am familiar with that
20 industry.
21 I can tell you that there's a huge contrast
22 between the fossil fuel industry and other industries
23 with whom I have worked as an environmental planner and
24 coal and phosphate projects and things of that nature.
25 The petrochemical industry, for whatever reason,
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 223 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 including coal, seems to be entitled, and they don't
2 really address the environmental issues in the same way
3 that other very polluting industries do. For whatever
4 reason, I'm not sure.
5 I had the misfortune of living on Red Butte
6 Creek when the Chevron oil spill happened. I have lived
7 there for 40 years. I have been diagnosed with multiple
8 myeloma. Fortunately that has been abated, at least I
9 hope. I keep watching. I go in every six months for
10 blood tests. I just went in yesterday. There's just
11 not a whole lot more we can do.
12 What we're hoping for is not clean air.
13 That's a euphemism. What we're looking for is
14 relatively clean air. That's about all we seem to be
15 able to hope for. So I applaud the EPA to be last week
16 meeting on PCE plume. EPA is doing a wonderful job in
17 addressing that in the community involved and associated
18 with that.
19 I have been involved with geothermal as well
20 as a consultant, the Steamboat Springs project in
21 western Nevada. It's an excellent way. That's also the
22 binary plant where you don't use up the resource. You
23 reinject, and it's a totally renewable situation.
24 One of the renewables that we don't seem to be
25 willing to look at is low head hydro. That's another
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 224 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 one in addition to solar and tidal and all the other
2 opportunities we have.
3 One of the things we have talked about is
4 economics. Some of these jobs could be created, as the
5 president has pointed out, if these jobs were diverted
6 from extraction to solar industry. But another aspect
7 to that is, I have had clients come into this valley,
8 and pick them up at the airport, and have them drive
9 very few miles, and all of a sudden have them say, "Turn
10 around, I am going home. The air is so bad here. We
11 don't want to be associated with this valley."
12 And that's something that doesn't show up
13 necessarily in the economic statistics of the state, and
14 economic development. And so I just would think that we
15 need to do whatever we can and be as aggressive as we
16 possibly can, whether it's the EPA plan or something
17 even more aggressive, and grateful to have the
18 opportunity to address this group. Thank you.
19 (Applause).
20 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you. It's
21 getting loud again out there. Maybe we need to tell
22 them to move or close the door. Josh Anderson.
23 JOSH ANDERSON: Hello. My name is Josh
24 Anderson. J-O-S-H, A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N. I am a firefighter
25 paramedic, right here in Salt Lake City, and I'd just
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 225 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 like to share a perspective from that that relates to
2 this. And that's that when I got into the fire service,
3 about 10 years ago, for that we go into every bay in any
4 fire house, and you would find the walls pretty much
5 covered in soot, black. And the reason for this is
6 because of the diesel fumes in the exhaust in the fire
7 trucks.
8 Kind of interesting note is that back in the
9 seventies and eighties when respiratory protection first
10 became, you know, really big and got to all the
11 volunteer fire departments, they thought that they would
12 see huge reductions in the number of firefighters'
13 deaths and early firefighters' deaths due to lung cancer
14 and whatnot, because we now had respiratory protection
15 in fires.
16 But now what they found is that those deaths
17 didn't really decline all that much because we were
18 still dealing with the nitrous oxide emissions in the
19 fire houses that were emitted by the fire engines. And
20 so in the last few years, the EPA started requiring
21 nitrous oxide and similar systems to what's going to
22 be -- what's proposed to be installed in the coal plants
23 here.
24 And so what I am here for is to speak in
25 support of EPA Option No. 2, because the effects in the
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 226 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 fire house have been drastic. They actually just in the
2 last couple of years painted all the walls in our fire
3 houses, and they are still white. It's pretty amazing
4 because all the fire engines have been converted to
5 these systems that convert the nitrous oxide, as well as
6 the other particulates in there that are very similar to
7 the particulate and the pollutants that you'll find
8 coming out of these coal plants.
9 So once again, just want to sum up, the NOx is
10 the same. NOx that's in the fire engines that we were
11 able to clean up there is the same as in these coal
12 plants. And if you think otherwise, you are just going
13 to be kind of fooling yourself, because firefighters'
14 deaths were directly attributed to those things.
15 And as far as the jobs go, jobs are going to
16 be shifted, not lost. There actually -- there is a huge
17 solar farm going in down in southern Utah. So if
18 anybody needs a job, I'm sure we can shift that over
19 there. Any of the money that would be spent on this you
20 could put over there as well, if that's going to put
21 PacifiCorp out of business. So thank you for your time.
22 (Applause).
23 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you.
24 Mr. Pacheco, you are our last speaker. Do you still
25 want to speak?
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 227 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 DAVE PACHECO: Sure. My name is Dave Pacheco.
2 D-A-V-E, P-A-C-H-E-C-O. I am fourth generation Utahan.
3 I didn't prepare remarks tonight, but I just speak from
4 the heart. A couple things jump out to me. And I
5 haven't studied the plans.
6 My grandfather was a coal miner also, out here
7 in the Lark mine in Bingham Canyon. He passed away from
8 a number of injuries that he had in the mines and also
9 had black lung. You know, he always used to say to me,
10 you know, do what you think is right. Do what you think
11 is best.
12 And I've just always taken that to heart.
13 Subsequently I am environmental activist. I am
14 full-time organizer for environmental causes related to
15 public lands here in Utah. And I can relate to the same
16 sort of things that were going on with our public lands
17 as going on with this decision that you need to make
18 here in regards to our air, and that is, think about the
19 long-term effects.
20 The jobs are there. The people who spoke
21 earlier are genuine. They spoke from the heart, just
22 like these folks here are tonight. The jobs can be
23 transferred. The jobs will change. Change is
24 inevitable.
25 What we can't do is continue to stick our
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 228 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 heads in the sand and say things are going to continue
2 to be just rosy the way that we are, the way we've
3 always done it, because it's decided that profits are
4 made from.
5 Our job tonight is to let you know what the
6 people think, and not what the profits dictate. And I
7 think that's where we need to make the decision here. I
8 am so in support of the clean parks option, Option No.
9 2. I think that's the right way to go.
10 My partner spoke earlier about going to the
11 parks out here. I have been to the parks for a long
12 time in Utah. I've visited them several times a year.
13 I've seen changes. I've seen changes in the way that I
14 can't -- I can't see as far as I used to. From those
15 same points I couldn't see Navajo Mountain this year
16 that I was able to in the past, from Bryce, from those
17 overlooks.
18 There's a reason for that, and the reason is
19 that we're increasing our output of coal. And those
20 power plants in that region, they have been fingered as
21 the, you know, the guilty party, and I think we ought to
22 err on the side of caution there.
23 The point was made earlier about tourism, and
24 I just want to reinforce that the state of Utah itself
25 is out promoting our national parks in earnest. They
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 229 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 call it the mighty five. And they are bringing people
2 here from all over the world, and that is the future of
3 this state.
4 Of the -- we all speak about one thing. We
5 all have one thing in common here in Utah and that this
6 is a beautiful place, and the decisions we make today to
7 keep it that way are going to be the most important
8 decisions of our state going forward; not to think in
9 the nineteenth century about burning coal for our fuels,
10 but to look forward into the twenty-first century where
11 we are now and make decisions today that will benefit
12 those future generations.
13 Because it's not about the job we have today.
14 It's about the job and the place that we leave for our
15 future generations. Thank you.
16 (Applause).
17 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: Thank you all for
18 coming. The hearing is officially over. If you want to
19 submit written comments, please do so. We ask that you
20 submit them sooner rather than later so that EPA has
21 more time consider them in our decision. And we
22 appreciate your patience. It was -- there were a lot of
23 people here.
24 FEMALE VOICE: Can I ask a quick question? I
25 submitted comments through your website and when it sent
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 230 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 me my return as to show me a document of what I sent as
2 an e-mail, it eliminated all of the links to articles
3 and stuff that I put in my entire e-mail. Why is that?
4 GAIL FALLON: If you want to call me, I'll
5 give you my number. If you check the handout, Gail
6 Fallon on there, I can try and work through that with
7 you on the phone maybe.
8 FEMALE VOICE: Can I just send it to your
9 e-mail to that and then see if it gets to you without
10 eliminating the links?
11 GAIL FALLON: That would be fine.
12 HEARING OFFICER SUTIN: The written comment
13 period closes March 14th. Thank you, everybody. Good
14 night.
15
16 (The hearing concluded at 8:21 p.m.)
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 231 Agren Blando Court Reporting & Video, Inc.
1 C E R T I F I C A T E
2 STATE OF UTAH )
3 COUNTY OF SALT LAKE )
4 THIS IS TO CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings
5 were taken before me, Teri Hansen Cronenwett, Certified
6 Realtime Reporter, Registered Merit Reporter and Notary
7 Public in and for the State of Utah.
8 That the proceedings were reported by me in
9 Stenotype, and thereafter transcribed by computer under
10 my supervision, and that a full, true, and correct
11 transcription is set forth in the foregoing pages,
12 numbered 2 through 231 inclusive.
13 I further certify that I am not of kin or otherwise
14 associated with any of the parties to said cause of
15 action, and that I am not interested in the event
16 thereof.
17 WITNESS MY HAND and official seal at Salt Lake
18 City, Utah, this 8th day of February, 2016.
19
20 Teri Hansen Cronenwett, CRR, RMR 21 License No. 91-109812-7801
22 My commission expires: January 19, 2019 23
24
25
PUBLIC HEARING 1/26/2016 232