Harry Reid's Nevada staff needs to do a better job of keeping the Senate Majority Leader abreast of what's happening all over his home state.

Reid's made a few gaffs the past few weeks in explaining his vision for Nevada to lead the nation in developing alternative sources of energy to fossil fuels.

On Aug. 8, in an opinion piece by the senator, published on Page 1 of the Ely Times, the Man from Searchlight informed us that Sierra Pacific Resources was lying to us that our power rates would be lower if the Ely Energy Center were built.

Too bad none of his staff told him we don't get our power from Sierra Pacific or Nevada Power.

Our power comes from the Deseret Power Cooperative, which gets some power from Glen Canyon Dam and the Bonanza coal plant in Utah.

The senator also complained about the hidden medical costs as children and the elderly are forced to breath the fumes generated by burning coal. He says a “cleaner” coal plant is still dirty.

But didn't his staff tell him that the plants are being located far enough up Steptoe Valley, that no population centers will be downwind.

Sen. Reid also notes that White Pine County can benefit from developing geothermal energy sources near Cherry Creek and Butte Valley.

That's comforting. But the BLM held an auction on Aug. 14 for geothermal parcels in California and Nevada. There was high interest as nearly $20 million was bid for six parcels in California and 43 in Nevada.

The high bid -- a record high -- of $14,000 per acre went for a California parcel; the second high bid of $11,000 per acre went for a second California parcel. Top bid for a Nevada parcel was $510 per acre. The lowest successful bids were $300 per acre.

The BLM received nearly $11.7 million for the Nevada parcels in Washoe, Churchill, Mineral, Pershing, Nye, Humboldt and Lander County.

No parcels in White Pine were auctioned, so we're not sure if any energy companies want to site a geothermal plant in the county.

The senator has made some other recent mistakes, based on information provided by his staff.

At a recent meeting in Pahrump, Reid said California is getting only one percent of its power from coal sources, according to a report in our sister newspaper The Pahrump Valley Times.

But according to California, 15.7 percent of its power is coming from coal. Here's a link to the California Energy Commission website: (http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/gross_system_power.html. By the way, California has nuclear power plants, as well.

Reid told the Clean Energy Summit he hosted last weekend that if Sierra Pacific Resources was seeking a transitional power source while more green power is developed, it should build more natural gas-fired power plants.

Again, Reid's staff hasn't been keeping up with what's going on in Nevada.

An Aug. 9 report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal expressed the concern of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission that Nevada will run short of the expensive, but clean-burning fuel within three years if new gas fields aren't developed and more pipelines built.

Natural gas doesn't seem to be much of a solution, at least not in the short term.

The senator was scheduled to meet in Ely this morning with members of the Great Basin National Park Foundation, the county and the city. The 9 a.m. meeting at the Prospector Inn was by invitation only.

The Ely Times learned of the meeting only after we were contacted by other private citizens who had learned of it. But once Reid's office was contacted, we were allowed to send a reporter. That story will run next week.

We hope we won't just be repeating the senator's new mantra that “coal is dirty and cleaner coal is still dirty.” As the senator speaks with more Nevadans about his proposal, we hope he comes to understand that green power will take time to develop and replace fossil fuels.

We suggest the senator considers a national plan, since his position with the Senate would merit that course of action. Power needs are growing, not just in Nevada, but nationwide.

We suggest he gets legislation introduced to cap carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants at present-day levels. Older, more-polluting plants need to be replaced.

As new plants come online, the older plants can be shut down -- maintaining current levels of CO2 emission. The first objective of green-power development should be to cover the projected increase in power usage -- which in itself will be a challenge.

As alternative energy sources are developed beyond that level, fossil fuel plants can be replaced megawatt for megawatt by green power.

The senator isn't famous for modifying his viewpoint. But that may have to do with the quality of information he gets from his staff.