Judge halts Ga. coal plant over climate concerns

Construction on Georgia's first new coal-fired power plant in decades came to a halt yesterday, thanks to a groundbreaking decision by a judge.

Overturning an administrative court's earlier ruling permitting Dynegy's Longleaf plant, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore found that the state Environmental Protection Division must limit the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the facility. The plant is expected to release 9 million tons of CO2 pollution annually -- more than twice the amount from an average coal-fired power plant, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Judge Moore's decision marks the first time since last year's Supreme Court ruling requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate CO2 that a court has applied that standard to emissions from an industrial source, according to the nonprofit environmental firm GreenLaw:

"In a case that is being watched across the country, Judge Moore has sent a message that it is not acceptable for the state to put profits over public health," said Justine Thompson, Executive Director of GreenLaw. "This ruling goes a long way toward protecting the right of Georgians to breathe clean air and sends a message to EPD that it must tighten the standards it uses to approve air pollution permits for companies seeking to build any more coal-fired power plants in this state."

Last June, GreenLaw attorneys representing the Friends of the Chattahoochee and the Sierra Club filed suit challenging the permit allowing the 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power plant to be built in Early County south of Columbus. The groups were concerned that the permit failed to include any limits on carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas pollutant. Houston-based Dynegy currently leads the nation in efforts to build new coal-fired power plants.

The Georgia ruling illustrates the courts' growing role in the fight over new coal-fired power plants. Just last month, for example, the North Carolina Division of Air Quality responded to a federal court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency wrongly exempted coal-fired plants from Clean Air Act limits on hazardous pollutants by asking Duke Energy for assurances that its new Cliffside coal-fired power facility under construction west of Charlotte would include what are known as "maximum achievable" pollution controls for mercury and other toxic emissions.

(Photo of protesters outside a Dynegy shareholder meeting courtesy of Clean Energy for Georgia; more photos online here.)

Labels: coal, Dynegy, Georgia