Aug. 6, 2007: North Dakota Park Gets National Honor - and Faces Threat from Coal Plant

North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park is honored as one of the best three parks for natural history, in the new Fodor's "Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West."  But park advocates say a proposed coal power plant could put a dark cloud over the park's future.

PRAIRIE NEWS SERVICE
Aug. 6, 2007

North Dakota Park Gets National Honor - and Faces Threat from Coal Plant

Dickinson, ND - North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park is honored as one of the best three parks for natural history, in the new Fodor's "Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West."  But park advocates say a proposed coal power plant could put a dark cloud over the park's future.  Of the half million visitors a year to the park, 90 percent cite the scenery as one of the important reasons for their visit. Neil Tangen, a concessionaire at the park, thinks the proposed plant will ruin the park's natural vistas.

"And here you are coming over to a national park where you expect the scenery, the clearness of the air and then here you are within miles of a coal-fired plant."

Westmoreland Power, Inc. is planning to build a 500 megawatt coal fired power plant about 55 miles from the national park near the town of Gascoyne in southwestern North Dakota. The National Park Service concludes that air quality would be adversely affected 19 days out of the year if the plant went in.  Tangen says even one day is too much.

"Do people really want see the haze over a national park even one day. I mean, what kind of impression does that give us."

He says instead of coal, he would prefer renewable and clean wind power to provide the state's additional electric needs.  North Dakota does rank first in the nation in wind energy potential, and it's estimated that over 36 hundred new jobs would be created in the state through renewable energy development.