Judge Stops Construction of Coal Plant
Posted on: Wednesday, 2 July 2008, 18:45 CDT
Georgia has blocked construction of a new coal-fired power station because of concerns over its carbon dioxide emissions.
Environmentalists predict the decision will lead to reconsideration of many coal power plants under development in the U.S.
Georgia's Department of Natural Resources issued a permit allowing the Dynegy company to begin construction of its Longleaf coal plant.
Construction of the 1,200 megawatt facility was halted after a ruling by But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore, saying the permit should have set limits on carbon emissions.
Her decision was based on a 2007 ruling that the supreme court made recognizing carbon dioxide (CO2) a pollutant.
Dynegy has more proposed new coal plants than any other company and is the largest coal plant developer in the U.S.
The decision marked a change in global warming regulation in the U.S. because coal plants will now have to take into account their CO2 impacts, Bruce Nilles, director of campaign group the Sierra Club, said.
"Coal-fired power plants emit more than 30% of our nation's global warming pollution," he said.
"Thanks to this decision, coal plants across the country will be forced to live up to their clean coal rhetoric."
Last year Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius rejected a new coal plant on the grounds that global warming is a threat to public health and agriculture. The Fulton County court is the first to apply a ruling under the Clean Air Act.
The developers of the Longleaf plant plan to appeal to a state appeals court and say they are still committed to the project.
Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a Washington based industry organisation, said the judge's assumptions "do not square with the facts or the law".
"The Georgia state court has written an opinion fully in uncharted territory," he told the Reuters news agency.
There are more coal plants under construction now in the U.S. than at any time in the last 20 years.
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