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Moore rules on greenhouse gas emissions

Georgia judge finds that coal plant must obtain emissions permit from state EPA

Posted by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor) at 7:52 PM on 30 Jun 2008

The AP has the bombshell news. A judge has finally used the Supreme Court decision that carbon dioxide is a pollutant:

The construction of a coal-fired power plant in Georgia was halted Monday when a judge ruled that the plant's builders must first obtain a permit from state regulators that limits the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

Read Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore's ruling [PDF]. What did the judge find?

E&E News ($ub. req'd) explains:

Permit filings for the 1,200-megawatt Longleaf Energy Station coal plant, to be built by LS Power Group and Dynegy in Early County, Ga., did not include provisions detailing the plant's CO2 emissions. Yet EPD permitted it anyway on grounds that while CO2 may be a pollutant, the gas was not subject to regulation under the act.

Moore disagreed, saying the respondents' position "is untenable."

"There is no question that CO2 is subject to regulation under the act," Moore wrote.

The judge also found that Georgia regulators failed to sufficiently consider best available control technology for the plant by allowing developers to forgo consideration of integrated gasification combined cycle technology that would have allowed for CO2 capture.

Kudos to the judge for bringing some climate sanity back into the coal plant permitting process.

Read more news and commentary on the original Supreme Court decision.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Other states?

It'll be interesting to see what effect this ruling will have in states that are considering new coal-fired power plants (like here in Virginia).

Join the discussion on global warming, recycling, and organic beer at The Green Miles!
Interesting

This was coming, but I'm surprised this decision came before the EPA acted. I'll have to read the ruling and see exactly what the judge wrote.

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