Bad-air warning raises questions

Suggestions by physicians to clean up the Wasatch Front's polluted air are receiving largely positive reactions, but officials have many questions and Rocky Mountain Power doesn't like their proposal to ban new coal-fired power plants.

The doctors, operating under the name Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, met with Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. and other state experts on Friday, then held a press conference Monday to publicly state concerns and proposals.

Their position is that bad air along the Wasatch Front amounts to a health crisis that will only grow worse without bold steps. Among steps they propose are a ban on new coal-fired power plants because of mercury the plants release, improved mass transit to reduce vehicles on the road, requiring freeway drivers to slow to 55 miles per hour on smoggy days, and asking school bus drivers not to idle in school yards while waiting for students.

Michael Mower, spokesman for Huntsman, said the governor welcomes the report prepared by the doctors.

"He feels it highlights critically important facts about air quality in Utah," Mower noted in an e-mail. "Action needs to be taken to address Utah's air quality problems, and Gov. Huntsman looks forward to working with legislators, scientific and medical experts, business and community leaders and all Utahns to find solutions to this pressing issue."

The electricity provider for the vast majority of Utahns wasn't impressed with the proposed ban on more power plants.

"If policymakers determine that they do not want electricity generated from coal," said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen, "we're going to have to get it somewhere else, and it would be a lot more expensive."

What about the physicians' position that some alternative methods of producing power are no more expensive than coal-burning generators?

Eskelsen said wind power with federal subsidies has come down to a "reasonable range" of dollars spent per kilowatt-hours produced.

But wind is available only about 30 percent of the time at the best sites, he said, and coal- and gas-burning plants produce power more than 85 percent of the time.

Also, the alternative methods don't give enough power to meet needs. A large wind turbine installation is about 100 megawatts and some proposals have been made to build wind projects that approach 300 megawatts capacity, he said.