City of Farmington says planned carbon capture project at New Mexico coal plant no longer viable
The City of Farmington announced it has ended the plan it began years ago to acquire the San Juan Generating Station and run it with a partner.
The announcement Dec. 20 followed a loss during arbitration hearings Dec. 14 that the city called a “catastrophic blow” to the partnership between it and Enchant Energy.
Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett said a strategy employed by Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) and other plant owners to dismantle key parts of the facility during decommissioning work got the go-ahead from a panel of arbitrators – a panel the city had hoped would instead put a hold on equipment auctions.
“Given PNM’s and the other co-owners’ actions to quickly dismantle SJGS, and the panel’s recent decision to allow them to do so, we have arrived at a point where those actions directly undermine the viability of successful implementation of the Carbon Capture Project,” Duckett said in the press release issued by the city Tuesday afternoon.
“For a region already facing economic challenges, we have worked diligently to keep SJGS open with carbon capture,” Duckett wrote. “Unfortunately, profit and the (Energy Transition Act) have taken precedence over the livelihoods of real people and families. It is with a heavy heart that we withdraw from the arbitration efforts and Carbon Capture Project at SJGS.”
Duckett announced the decision hours after a morning closed-session conference with the City Council, the CEO of Enchant Energy and the city’s legal team.
[John R. Moses]
More: The end: City says San Juan Generating Station retrofit project no longer feasible
