Pinal Today

Plans to expand the Coolidge Generating Station aren’t sitting well with the residents of Randolph and environmentalists.

Salt River Project (SRP), Arizona’s second-largest utility company and the owner of the gas-fired power plant, intends to use land it annexed to boost the facility’s current 12 gas turbines by an additional 16, Phoenix’s ABC15 reported.

According to the station, SRP would build eight new turbines in 2024 and another eight the following year.

The Coolidge Generating Station, built between 2009 and 2011, was purchased by SRP in 2019 to address the growing demand for energy in the Valley.

ABC15 said that the company’s board voted 8-6 to approve the nearly $1 billion project, after much debate.

“The proposed Coolidge Expansion Project (CEP) will allow SRP to meet the significant near-term increase in energy needs in its service territory, which is among the fastest-growing regions in the nation,” the company said on its website. “In addition, the CEP will enable the addition of more renewable resources while maintaining a reliable power grid.”

The land encircles Randolph, a town in Pinal County that was historically populated by Blacks; it was first settled about a century ago by Black migrants from Oklahoma.

Neighbors such as Richard Wright find nothing good about the potential expansion. "When we add up all the negative stuff to the positive, there is no positive," Wright said to ABC15.

Another Randolph resident, Ron Jordan, shares Wright’s sentiments. "[Sixteen] more additions of noise. 16 more additions of all the bright lights and not knowing when they're going to crank up," Jordan said to ABC15. "And then, 16 more additions of the fumes and things are going to come out of there, which we don't know yet. And they haven't said yet. All they said is they're going to monitor it."

Environmental nonprofit organization Sierra Club believes the expansion of the facility will exacerbate climate change.

Sierra Club Chapter Director Sandy Bahr said to ABC15 that the project will fill the air with carbon emissions and endanger those within the vicinity.

"This area where the plant is located is already in an area that is considered severe for particulates, and this plant will emit additional particulates," Bahr said. "And those smaller particulates are ones that get deep in our lungs; we can't really cough them out."

 SRP insists that “the emissions from Coolidge itself will be small” because the turbines will run “for a few hundred hours per year,” according to ABC15.