Lawmakers: InterGen "misled" govt. over La Rosita plant

Two congressional representatives of California are taking US generator InterGen to task for failing to install anti-pollution devices at its 1,065MW La Rosita natural gas-fired power plant, just over the border in Mexico's Baja California state. BNamericas obtained a December 24 letter from US senator Dianne Feinstein and representative Duncan Hunter to InterGen CEO Marvin Odum, which addresses concerns over the plant's pollution controls. In the letter, Feinstein and Hunter say they negotiated a deal with InterGen earlier in 2003, agreeing not to push forward a bill imposing California emission standards on US-Mexico border projects if the company would install the devices by La Rosita's operational start. La Rosita started in July 2003, and one of the two export turbines lacks the anti-pollution device. "It now appears that InterGen did not act in good faith and misled the signatories of this letter as well as the department of energy by stating that the promised technology would be installed before the [plant's] export turbines came online," the letter reads. However, InterGen says it has done nothing wrong and has 30 months after the July startup to install the selective catalytic reduction technologies (SCR). The SCR reduces nitrogen oxide, which causes smog. "The voluntary commitment we made a year ago to install US-style pollution controls on our Mexican plant at a cost of tens of millions of dollars remains intact," a company official told BNamericas. "For valid technical reasons we've had a slight delay with one of the four units, but the overall schedule will be met." Feinstein and Duncan have asked InterGen to install the SCR device by the northern hemisphere's 2004 summer ozone season, instead of waiting until December 2005 to finish installing the required technology. The lawmakers have focused on the issue for months and have discussed it with Mexican officials. They have not yet received a response to the letter, Duncan's spokesperson Mike Harrison said. As such, Harrison could not comment on actions the congressman might take, saying such questions are "premature." InterGen has ordered the SCR device for the export turbine, according to the letter, and the company announced plans in January 2003 to install the technology for the Mexico generators at La Rosita. "From an emissions standpoint, La Rosita already compared favorably with a number of power facilities currently operating in California," InterGen's then-CEO Carlos Riva said in January 2003. "With the additional pollution control technology installed, La Rosita will compare favorably with the best facilities operating in California." La Rosita, a combined-cycle facility that required some US$750mn investment, sells 50% of its capacity to Mexico's federal energy company CFE under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) and the balance to CFE and/or the border region.