Greens Laud Power Co. Pullout From Coal Power Station

Houston-based Dynegy Corporation is dropping its support for a controversial coal-fired power plant in Southwest Georgia.

Dynegy officials say they're pulling out of the Longleaf power station project near Blakeley because of the poor economy and the possibility of tighter federal regulations.

Environmental groups are thrilled. The project ground to a halt last year amid a flurry of lawsuits over pollution controls.

Jennette Gayer of Environment Georgia says the project doesn't stand a chance now that one of its two backers has pulled out:

"It's very exciting that Dynegy cancelled their plans to build a large coal plant in early county. It's clear that Georgia has the technology, know how to provide energy without a polluting coal plant, so it's very nice to see an energy company reacting to that reality."

Officials for the company that owns the project remain optimistic, however.

New Jersey-based LS Power hopes an appeal of the court ruling this month will get the project restarted by this summer.

Click here for ongoing GPB News coverage of this story.

Firm Says Proposed Power Plant Still On Track

The Houston-based Dynegy Corporation said on Friday it was walking away from the joint venture with New York's LS Power to construct a coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia.

Dynegy says they took the decision due to tight credit markets and economic uncertainty.

However, LS Power, who’ll own 100-percent of the proposed $2 billion facility, say they're going ahead with the project, set along the Chattahoochee River.

Project Manager Mike Vogt:

"We're going to push forward with the development of this plant, and ultimately customers -- hopefully in Georgia -- will decide that it does have a place and will decide that it does have a place."

Vogt says his company is also appealing a court decision from late last year that halted the project over air pollution concerns:

"The briefings will be finished in January 2009, and the court of appeals will make their decision sometime before June of 2009."

Environmentalists say the facilities' smokestacks will emit unchecked amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur, and coal dust.

Supporters of the project say it’ll bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax-revenue to Early County – one of the state's poorest.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the proposed Longleaf Power plant.

Coal-Fired Power Plant Co-investor Ends Joint Venture

Power producer Dynegy Inc. on Friday said it plans to dissolve a development joint venture with LS Power Associates LP, due to constrained credit markets and economic uncertainty.

Dynegy will record an undisclosed loss in 2009 related to the transaction while LS Power will receive about $19 million in cash during the first quarter to reflect the relative value of assets exchanged.

The two companies agreed to the dissolution and that Dynegy will acquire exclusive rights, ownership and developmental control of all repowering or expansion opportunities related to its existing portfolio of operation assets.

LS Power will acquire full ownership and developmental rights associated with various "greenfield" projects under consideration in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan and Nevada, as well as other power generation and transmission development projects not related to Dynegy's existing operating portfolio of assets.

"Today, the development of new generation is increasingly marked by barriers to entry including external credit and regulatory factors that make development much more uncertain," said Bruce Williamson, Dynegy's chief executive.

"In light of these market circumstances, Dynegy has elected to focus development activities and investments around our own portfolio where we control the option to develop and can manage the costs being incurred more closely."

Click here for previous GPB News coverage of this developing story.

(AP)

South GA power station backer weighing pullout

One of the backers of a controversial plan to build a coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia says a tight credit market is forcing his company to reassess their investment.

The Houston-based Dynegy Corporation says an uncertain economy is behind their decision to reconsider their backing of LS Power. It wants to build a 1,200 megawatt power station along the Chattahoochee River in Blakely.

Dynegy spokesman David Byford:

“Last week we announced a reevaluation of our participation in future activities or projects that are outside of Dynegy’s operational footprint.”

That footprint includes six energy projects, including the Longleaf plant that Dynegy is reconsidering, nationwide.

Blakeley Mayor Ric Hall says if Dynegy drop’s their support, it would hit the rural town hard:

“…well, if they pull out, certainly it would have a devastating impact on job potential… it’s been quite a number of years now in which we have held out hope that possibly they would be able to build a plant here because of the impact that it could have economically on our community.”

Local officials say the plant would create about a thousand construction jobs, more than 100 full-time positions, and add millions of tax-revenue dollars to Early County. The county is one of the poorest in the state and is banking on the jobs.

The power plant has been talked about for the past seven years.

But plans came to a crawl earlier this year, when an Atlanta judge accepted an appeal by environmentalists against the facility. They claim high carbon dioxide, sulfur and particulate pollution levels aren’t worth the economic benefits.

Billy Fleming is the publisher of the Blakeley-based Early County News. Fleming’s a staunch supporter of the power plant, and says he wasn’t surprised by Dynegy’s reevaluation:

“With what’s going on the financial world today, we got a landscape out there today nobody ever dreamed they’d see, and everybody’s having to back up and rethink and reevaluate their positions on a lot of things. And I have no doubt that the difficulty of permitting and constructing a coal-fired plant with all the global-warming alarmists’ stuff going on is in the back of their heads as well.”

Mayor Hall agrees, and says that the environmental lawsuit hurt the plant:

“..and then of course the tremendous expense that has been associated with the legal battle that they’ve had to go through – particularly in the last three years.”

LS Power says they’re going ahead with the project, despite Dynegy’s pending decision. Officials with the New-Jersey-based firm say they’ve filed another appeal against the court ruling – one that they hope to see adjucated by the summer of 2009.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.

Business groups fighting coal plant ruling

Georgia business groups are appealing a judge's decision to halt the construction of a power plant, warning that the ruling could stall other energy plants and hamper economic development throughout the state.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce warned Wednesday that the decision could have far-reaching implications, driving up energy costs and preventing the construction of natural gas, oil and biofuel plants across the state.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore's ruling relied on the Supreme Court's decision last year that carbon dioxide could be regulated as a pollutant, and environmental activists said it set a precedent.

In the ruling, Moore contended that federal air pollution laws required permits for all pollutants that could be regulated under the federal Clean Air Act - including carbon dioxide. The gas, which is blamed for global warming, is not currently regulated.

The decision halted the construction of the $2 billion Longleaf Energy Plant, which would become Georgia's first new coal-fired plant in more than 20 years.

Environmental groups praised the decision, saying it will help them stave off 30 other coal plants now in active litigation. At the very least, they said, it's a sign that energy companies will face more challenging legal hurdles over coal-fired power projects.

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.

But the chamber contends the ruling went too far, sidestepping the efforts of federal lawmakers and regulators debating whether to regulate the gas.

The chamber claims that the ruling could delay the construction of any "sizable" new building that relies on natural gas for heat - from office buildings to malls.

"It would be devastating," said George Israel, the chamber's chief executive. "It would cause delays in almost everything, from hospital expansions to school auditoriums."

Israel told the Albany Herald newspaper:

“We’re shocked at the decision.”

“If this ruling is allowed to stand, it will not only hinder the ability to supply power to the state, it will have a major negative impact on future economic development in Georgia.”

Israel, local Albany officials and a lawyer for LS Power met with the newspaper on Tuesday to lay out their opposition to the ruling.

The court will decide by Aug. 29 whether to hear the appeal. The Sierra Club, which filed the lawsuit, said the ruling does not affect alternative energy projects.

"Georgia needs to be on the front of the clean energy economy," said Patty Durand, the group's president. "It's too bad the Georgia chamber chooses not to be a leader of a change that's inevitable."

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the battle over the Longleaf Power Station.

(With The Associated Press)

Sierra Club threatened over coal plant ruling

The Sierra Club's Atlanta chapter recently got a threatening phone call, likely related to their part in a fight against a planned coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia.

Chapter Director Patty Durand declined to comment on details of a police investigation, but acknowledged that a police report said that a man with a southern accent, possibly in his 30's placed a call on July 4th, saying:

"We need those jobs. You (expletive) communists have screwed us for the last time. You better have eyes in the back of your head because the bullets are coming."

On June 30th, a Fulton County Superior Court reversed an earlier administrative court decision on an Environmental Protection Division (EPD) permit that had okayed the $1.2 billion project in Early County.

A group of area residents and environmentalists, including the Sierra Club who are fighting the project, say the plant will emit unchecked amounts of carbon dioxide, harmful amounts of dust, and other pollutants.

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

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the battle over the LS Power Longleaf Power Station.

Sierra Club gets menacing call over coal plant ruling

The Atlanta chapter of the Sierra Club recently received a threatening call, presumably over their fight against a planned coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia.

On June 30th, a Fulton County Superior Court reversed an earlier administrative court decision on an Environmental Protection Division (EPD) permit that had okayed the $1.2 billion project in Early County.

A police report says a white man with a southern accent, possibly in his 30's placed the call on July 4th:

"We need those jobs. You (expletive) communists have screwed us for the last time. You better have eyes in the back of your head because the bullets are coming."

A group of area residents and environmentalists, including the Sierra Club who are fighting the project, say the plant will emit unchecked amounts of carbon dioxide, harmful amounts of dust, and other pollutants.

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

Local Sierra Club Director Patty Durand declined to comment on the incident when she was contacted on Friday, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the battle over the LS Power Longleaf Power Station.

Builders still banking on SW Georgia power plant

LS Power, the company seeking to build a coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia, says it will appeal a recent court ruling that halted construction.

Mike Vogt, project director with LS Power told the Dothan Eagle newspaper,

“We’re 100 percent committed to staying the course to begin construction.”

In a landmark ruling on June 30, the Fulton County Superior Court reversed an earlier administrative court decision on an Environmental Protection Division (EPD) permit that had okayed the $1.2 billion project in Early County.

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.

LS Power will appeal the decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals in August.

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

A group of area residents and environmentalists fighting the project say the plant will emit unchecked amounts of carbon dioxide, harmful amounts of dust, and other pollutants.

The Longleaf Power Plant would be the first such facility to be built in Georgia in the last two decades.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the issues at stake in the case.

Judge's ruling limits Early Co. power-plant opponents

Bulletin board in City Hall at Early Co. seat, Blakely, with flyer
expressing support for power-plant builders, LS Power.
(Photo: Dave Bender)

Southwest Georgia groups fighting a power-plant in Early County saw their legal appeal partially stymied in an Atlanta courtroom on Friday.

The judge okayed the plaintiffs' lawsuit against the Longleaf coal-fired power station, but rejected two of their key contentions:

• That the State Environmental Division imposed no limits on carbon dioxide emissions
  
• That EPA's existing regulations on dust emissions aren't strict enough, and would endanger area residents.

Michael Vogt, director of project development at LS Power, says the judge was right to reject those charges:

"We're complying with the current regulations related to carbon dioxide. Whether they're going to have standards that we're going to have to meet in the future; we'll meet them whenever they come into effect, but currently, there are none for a facility such as ours.

"We're complying with all of the rules and regulations that are in place to do exactly what they're concerned about: to protect their health and the environment that's around them."

Hearings on the 17-counts against the project will continue next month. Vogt expects a decision on the issues in mid-November.

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