Appeal planned over Georgia coal plant permit

An administrative law judge has upheld Georgia's decision to issue an air pollution permit for Dynegy's proposed coal-burning power plant in Early County. But environmental attorneys say they will appeal, charging that the judge ignored evidence that the company will not adequately restrict pollution from the Longleaf plant that threatens human health and crops critical to the local economy.

"This is the first coal-fired power permit to be approved in Georgia in over 20 years but with this court's ruling, I fear it will not be the last," says Justine Thompson, executive director of GreenLaw, which is leading the legal fight against the plant. "As neighboring states stand up against coal plants, Georgia's acquiescence will make us a target for new coal-fired power plant proposals. Building this plant as currently designed will lock this state into dirty air for the life of the plant, at least 50 or more years."

Georgia's decision comes as plans for other coal-fired projects across the United States have been canceled or delayed due to rising construction costs and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. James Hansen, a scientist who runs NASA's Goddard Space Center, has said he believes the government will be forced to regulate coal plants out of existence in the near future due to climate concerns.

During the hearing for Dynegy's proposed plant, GreenLaw attorney George Hays pointed out that the state Environmental Protection Division staff could not explain how permit limits for harmful soot and smog had been reached and said that state employees adopted conclusions proposed by Dynegy verbatim and without independent verification. The Houston-based Dynegy has proposed building more new coal-fired power plants than any other U.S. company.

Environmental advocates, health care providers and patient groups oppose the plant, and the Medical Association of Georgia issued a resolution opposing the building of any new coal-fired plants in the state, which already has 10 such facilities. The proposed Dynegy plant would emit 9 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution annually and 4,700 tons of sulfur dioxide. The plant's particulate emissions would violate the Environmental Protection Agency's standards for safe air in the community where the plant is located, and the facility would draw more than 20 million gallons of water per day from the Chattahoochee River, which has already been impacted by the region's severe ongoing drought.

Early County -- where African Americans make up almost half of the population and more than a quarter of the population lives in poverty -- already faces a serious pollution problem from Great Southern Paper Co.'s papermill. According to EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, the mill released more than 2 million pounds of toxic chemicals to the air in 2005 alone, including 240 pounds of lead, 47 pounds of mercury -- both potent neurotoxins -- and more than 2,200 pounds of benzene, a known carcinogen. Dynegy's plant would dramatically increase the local community's toxic burden.

For more details on the proposed plant's impact on environmental justice, see the comments [PDF] submitted to state regulators by the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest, which has since changed its name to GreenLaw. For a copy of the judge's ruling, click here [PDF]. And for more on the fight against Georgia's coal plants, visit www.nonewcoal.org.