"Reid, Nevada’s Democratic senior senator, told NV Energy executives he would “do everything to hurt investments in your company.” The threat apparently worked as no new coal plants have been built in Nevada since.
Here’s what Reid told reporters at a luncheon Wednesday, according to KTNV’s Jon Ralston:
"But here in Nevada we don’t even have—NV Energy has not been the biggest help. We had companies come here wanting to spend money [inaudible] but they ended up pulling away [inaudible] they lost large amounts of money. [inaudible] is doing the accounting now and he’s doing a lot better now, but there’s still a lot they need to do. They announced that they—because you know, I came out there—but a number of years ago and I learned they were going to build four to five new coal fire generating plants in Nevada. Why? Because it’s pristine. Out there, nobody complains. I complained. My staff and everybody said “why are you doing that? You’re going to hurt yourself.” And maybe I did. But I won, they lost."I called two of the companies that built plants there and I told them go ahead and do it, but I am going to do everything to hurt investments in your company. So they decided perhaps—decided to get rid of the coal plants. We don’t have a coal fire generated plant open since Reid-Gardner. And it was 40 years [inaudible]. Yesterday, they announced they announced it is going to close a year early. There’s only one coal fire plant left in Nevada and that’s on its way out too. So we’re making progress in Nevada." . . .