In a 3-2 vote last week, the Logan City Council squelched a proposal to spend $58 million for 20 megawatts and 2.2 percent ownership of the $2.3 billion, 900-megawatt Intermountain Power Project 3 plant in Millard County.
Now, Jay Larsen, director of Logan Light and Power, is urging the council to support a compromise: Buy 10 megawatts and 1.1 percent ownership for half the cost.
“It's a huge opportunity that we would miss out on if we don't reconsider and participate in this project now,” Larsen said, adding that the Sierra Club swayed votes by stacking a public hearing. “The people that were at that meeting were the environmental community. The rest of the citizens in Logan need to be heard from now.”
Larsen said Logan's diverse power portfolio - stoked by coal, wind, hydro and, potentially, geothermal energy - has room for more renewable power, as well as additional clean coal from IPP.
But Council Chairman Steve Taylor, who voted against the earlier proposal, has Larsen's request for a spot on the April 3 agenda.
Taylor said Monday he is not about to change his vote and maintained his colleagues have told him the same thing, so “there wouldn't be any reason to run the issue through as an agenda item.”
Councilwoman Laraine Swenson agreed, saying she is “vigorously” looking at geothermal power as an option.
But Councilman Joe Needham, who also voted against the coal-fired-power initiative, said he would keep an open mind about this and other issues.
“I'm always available to hear facts and information out there that could possibly sway a decision, but I'm pretty decided and firm where I'm at in deciding not to go with IPP-3,” Needham said. “We don't know all of the variables of the future, like having a carbon tax. We could possibly be buying a liability instead of an asset.”
Historical data and growth predictions show Logan - predicted by the state to top 67,000 people by 2020 - has enough power to last until 2019, giving officials time to develop renewable power, Needham said.
“This doesn't mean that in eight, nine or 10 years we might not say, 'We have to buy coal,' but we want to look at other options first,” Needham said.
abrunson@sltrib.com
JAY LARSEN
Director of Logan Light and Power
“Ignoring this option puts the rest of our community that depends on reliable and economical power at risk.”
