Friday, June 27, 2008
News Coal-fired power plant ruling expected next week
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Georgians may find out next week if they get their first new coal power plant in 20 years.
Lawyers with GreenLaw, an environmental law firm that argued against the Longleaf Plant in Early County, said Fulton County Superior Court Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore will issue a ruling between Monday and Thursday. The case examines whether the state Environmental Protection Division acted appropriately in not requiring the proposed coal plant to regulate its carbon dioxide emissions, the greenhouse gas scientists say is concentrating in the atmosphere and causing global warming.
Dynegy Co. and LS Power, the two companies pushing the plant, say it would add to the impoverished county's tax base and bring much-needed jobs to the area. A host of opponents and critics said most of the created jobs would be temporary construction positions and that any benefit to the county would be outweighed by the health impact of the plant's harmful emissions. The Medical Association of Georgia issued a resolution opposing any new coal plants in the state because of their emissions' unhealthy effects.
It's a tough call, however. Even Moore expressed difficulty with the position in which she was placed, as she stated from the bench during the case's June 3 hearing:
“No one can be employed if they’re falling down dying,” she said, adding that she had 19 boxes of documents sitting in the clerk’s office that she needed to examine. “We need to look at both the economy and the environment. That’s what I will do.”
Moore's ruling could establish a precedent as well, something that Dynegy's lawyers argued would be inappropriate were it decided by a judge rather than politicians. Should Moore rule against the plant, her court would be the first in the country to do so.
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