Mr. Stephen L. Baum
Chairman and CEO
Sempra Energy
101 Ash Street
San Diego, CA 92101-3017

RE: Coal-fired power plant in Northern Nevada

Dear Mr. Baum:

I am very concerned about Sempra’s plan to build a coal-fired power plant in Washoe County in Northern Nevada. This plant would significantly threaten the health and economic well being of people living in Northern Nevada. Please immediately cancel this ill-conceived project and invest instead in clean renewable energy resources.

Each year the Sempra coal plant would rob Nevada of billions of gallons of water, emptying out important groundwater supplies and threatening both ranching and future economic growth in the state. The plant would also heavily pollute both air and water, emitting 50 dangerous pollutants into the relatively pristine air of the region, and large amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that fine particle pollutants from power plants like the proposed Sempra plant trigger hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks every year and contribute to tens of thousands of premature deaths from cardiac disease and lung cancer. Even worse, the plant would also emit hundreds of pounds of lethal mercury each year. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that is already so widespread that it threatens one in six women of child-bearing age. It would only take small amounts of mercury to destroy the Pyramid Lake fishery, a main source of income for the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe.

The coal-fired plant would also kill development of Nevada’s renewable resources by taking the remaining available capacity on existing transmission lines that could otherwise be used to carry renewable energy to market. As a cost-effective and environmentally responsible alternative to a coal-fired plant, a renewable energy industry will reap rewards for decades. Renewable energy will produce more jobs and better serve the community and the environment by relying on the vast, untapped geothermal and wind resources of the region. Renewable energy also fills a market demand. Many private utilities, such as those in California, are required to derive 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2017

I join millions of concerned citizens in Nevada, California, and throughout the nation in demanding that you cancel plans to build this coal-fired plant.

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