Did you know that a new, coal fired power plant is close to being built just across the border of Nevada, just 14 miles north of Mesquite?

Neither did I.

The illustration at the left was extracted from the home page of the company that wants to build it and in a very important way, it paints a picture that says it all. Why do we need this power plant? Could the gaudy excess that Las Vegas symbolizes be a big part of the reason?

Las Vegas has also been in the news recently because they want to build water pipelines up to this same part of the desert and make it drier than it already is. This power plant will build water pipelines into the Tule Desert and make it drier than it already is.

I recently wrote about The Tragedy of the Commons. The concept is that when we humans try to share something … such as the very Earth we live on … we often end up ruining it because each one of us keeps taking a bite, then another bite, then another bite,  until nothing is left. That’s actually happening to the Earth. It’s called Global Warming and building coal fired power plants is one of the worst things that can be done right now.

But there are powerful forces that want to take that next bite. They scheduled a “public meeting” about the power plant in St. George on a day that the St. George Spectrum said is “least likely to draw a crowd.” Here’s what the Spectrum wrote:

“The Associated Press reported that a memorandum of understanding setting out those standards (for building the power plant) is already under way. However, public input has not even occurred. A coalition … has asked the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection to open to the public these power plant plans, which have all been done discreetly and under the radar, the AP reported.”

Does it sound to you like “the fix is in“?

But it really doesn’t have to be that way. We … all of us together … are in charge of our fate still. If we make it clear that we choose not to have our land drained of the last drop of water and our sky filled with the pollution of another coal fired power plant … so we can have more lights in Las Vegas … we can stop it.

You can submit written comments to the BLM until December 11, 2007. There’s a form you can download and instructions on how to fill it out at the BLM web site.