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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Environment - Still more on: Kentucky judge orders state to rehear permit for coal-fired power plant

Updating this ILB entry from Sept. 3, 2007, reporting on "a decision on Aug. 6 by Judge Thomas Wingate that rejected the air-quality permit for the 1,500-megawatt Thoroughbred plant planned by Peabody Energy for Muhlenberg County," the Kentucky Court of Appeals last week overturned the trial court, according to a brief AP story in the LCJ:

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Peabody Energy is still pushing to build a $2.5 billion coal-fired power plant in Western Kentucky.
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The St. Louis coal company won a Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling last week that could breathe new life into a proposal that has languished for some eight years.

The court of appeals overturned a lower court ruling that rejected a state permit allowing the proposed plant to operate.

Peabody wants to build the plant in Muhlenberg County. The plant was proposed in 2001 and has been held up by legal hurdles. Environmentalists have fought the proposal since its conception.

Lawyers for the state had argued that Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate had erred in his earlier ruling. A three-judge panel agreed, concluding that the state's decision to issue the permit was proper.

Sierra Club attorney Hank Graddy said he intends to pursue the case further, either by asking the appeals court to reconsider its decision or by seeking a review by the state Supreme Court.

Here is more from an Evansville Courier & Press report by Mark Wilson:
Lawyers for the state had argued that Wingate was wrong when he ruled that additional review was needed before the state could issue an air permit for the plant. A three-judge appeals court panel agreed, ruling the state's decision to issue the air permit was proper.

"This ruling is an affirmation of the state's permitting process. The Division of Air Quality will be very diligent in making sure that Peabody Energy and its Thoroughbred Energy Campus adhere to all of the state regulations dealing with air quality," said Elizabeth Robb Schmitz, speaking for the state agency.

The judges ruled against the previous lower court decision on every argument.

At issue was whether state officials and Peabody correctly considered the best available control technology for reducing key air pollutants; whether they considered the ecological risk from its toxic emissions; its potential impact to vegetation, soils and visibility; and whether parts of the permit were enforceable.

"It was not a good decision," said John Blair, president of Valley Watch, an Evansville-based organization that has opposed the plant since it was first proposed.

In 2005, after a Kentucky administrative judge ruled with Valley Watch that the project did not use the best available pollution controls, Kentucky decided to reject that decision and issue the permit anyway. That prompted the national Sierra Club to join Valley Watch in appealing to Franklin County Circuit Court.

The 1,500-megawatt power plant would be located at a former strip mine near Central City, Ky., about 60 miles southeast of Evansville. Opponents have argued the power plant could have a significant negative effect on air quality in the region.

In January, Valley Watch filed notice that it intended to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and hold it to enforcing requirements of the Clean Air Act that the power plant be built within 18 months of when its permit was issued.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 23, 2008 07:59 AM
Posted to Environment