Judge's ruling halts planned power station (Updated)

In a landmark ruling with national implications, The Fulton County Superior Court today reversed a previous administrative court decision on an Environmental Protection Division (EPD) permit allowing the construction of a coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia.

"We are in a moment of elation," said Justine Thompson a lawyer for Greenlaw, who represent a coalition of local residents and environmental groups that are fighting the plant's construction.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore reversed a previous decision by Atlanta Administrative Law Judge Judge Stephanie Howells, giving the go-ahead for the project.

Wyatt said in her ruling regarding the plant's projected carbon dioxide emissions:

"Faced with the ruling in Massachusetts that CO2 is an “air pollutant” under the Act, Respondents are forced to argue that CO2 is still not a “pollutant subject to regulation under the Act.” Respondents’ position is untenable. Putting aside the argument that any substance that falls within the statutory definition of “air pollutant may be “subject to” regulation under the Act, there is no question that CO2 is “subject to regulation under the Act."

Howells, in an 108-page decision reached on January 11th, had ruled affirming the EPD decision to issue an air quality permit:

"...the weight of the evidence demonstrates that limits imposed by EPD are reasonable and supported by law.”

The Houston-based Dynegy Company wants to build the 1200-megawatt Longleaf power plant on the Chattahoochee River in Early County.

The opponents last year filed an appeal to stop the construction. The say the plant would emit unchecked levels of carbon dioxide, and unacceptable amounts of other pollutants.

Proponents say the 1.2-billion dollar project will provide hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the poor rural area.

The plant would be the first such facility to be built in Georgia in the last 20-years.

Environmentalists said the decision marks the first time that a judge has applied a U.S. Supreme Court finding that carbon dioxide is a pollutant to emissions from an industrial source.

The court's April 2007 decision said the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are blamed for global warming.

"We will be taking this decision and making the same arguments to push for an end to conventional coal," said Bruce Nilles, who oversees the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign.

The plant's developers, LS Power and Dynegy Inc., said they planned to appeal.

"We are surprised with Judge Moore's ruling against us in every respect," said Mike Vogt, a spokesman for the energy plant. He also downplayed the ruling's impact on other pending lawsuits.

"I don't know what type of legal precedent a superior court judge in one state has over judges in other states," he said.

At a June 3 hearing, lawyers representing state regulators and plant developers said there was no federal standard yet to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and warned that a ruling to regulate the gas would "short-circuit" legislators' work to develop new rules.

The plant is expected to create more than 100 full-time jobs and give millions of dollars in tax revenues to Early County, where almost a quarter of the 12,000 residents live in poverty. It would power more than a half-million homes through utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Each year it would emit as much as 9 million tons of carbon dioxide, worrying critics who say it could cause health problems in a county that already suffers above-average air pollution.

The decision will force state regulators to reconsider coal-fired power plants and could push state regulators toward cleaner and more efficient energy, said Patti Durand, director of the Sierra Club's Georgia chapter.

"It's a scandal that energy companies are still trying to build coal plants even though they cause global warming," she said. "I can't be more thrilled. It's a huge ruling. This is a new day in the United States, and I'm thrilled."

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the Longleaf power station.

(With The Associated Press)