Grand Canyon's Cleaner Skies

Let's start the New Year off with some good news, shall we? A coal-burning power plant in Laughlin, Nevada has been forced to close its operations because of repeated violations of the federal Clean Air Act. Over the last six years, the plant has pumped 240,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 120,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, and 60,000 tons of particular matter into the atmosphere. Mix all that stuff together, add some drift, and you've got polluted air and a lot of haze at Grand Canyon National Park. Special thanks to the Grand Canyon Trust, the Sierra Club and the National Parks Conservation Association for the bringing the lawsuit against the powerplant on behalf of our parks and our lungs! The power plant may come back online someday, but not until a $1 billion retrofit to add pollution controls.