As a 17-year customer of Clark Public Utilities, I’ve always been happy with their service. Rates are reasonable, the system works well, and problems are fixed promptly.
I encourage the commissioners to take another step toward better serving their customers by speeding up the timetable for phasing out the River Road Generating Plant. The current plan calls for phasing out power generation at the gas-burning plant by 2045.
Keeping the plant in operation for another 23 years will needlessly expose local residents, especially in the nearby Fruit Valley neighborhood, to toxic pollutants like benzene and toluene. It will also prolong greenhouse gas emissions, when we need to do everything possible to combat climate change.
Local climate advocates aren’t calling for the plant to be shuttered immediately. We simply want Clark Public Utilities to show us a plan for phasing it out much more quickly, something that can be done without affecting rates, reliability and system resilience. As a customer, that’s something I would applaud.
