Georgia appeals court reverses coal plant ruling

Forbes ^ | July 7, 2009 | By GREG BLUESTEIN

[Jet Jaguar]

ATLANTA -- Developers of a $2 billion coal-fired power plant won an appeals court ruling Tuesday in their battle with environmentalists, but more court action will likely be needed before the path is cleared to build Georgia's first new coal plant in more than two decades.

A panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge's 2008 ruling that said plans for the south Georgia plant should have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Environmentalists who had hailed the lower court ruling last year as a precedent-setting decision were dismayed.

"We are very disappointed that the Court rejected other important claims that are critical to the protection of public health," said Justine Thompson, director of GreenLaw, which challenged the permit. She said the group will appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

LS Power, the plant's developer, said the company looks forward to moving the project forward after years of delays.

"We'll take it," said company spokesman Mike Vogt, who said the ruling overturns 95 percent of the trial judge's order. "We feel pretty good about our chances here."

The Court of Appeals ruling still likely means another delay for the $2 billion Longleaf Energy Plant because it requires an administrative judge to review the permitting process again.

But the three-judge panel's decision said requiring the state to regulate the greenhouse gas would "engulf a wide range of potential carbon dioxide emitters in Georgia - and Georgia alone - in a flood of litigation over permits, and impose far-reaching economic hardship on the state."

The plant is expected to create more than 100 full-time jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues for 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.

[Danae]

A win for the good guys!

[headstamp 2]

“It would power more than a half-million homes through utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.”

And the Enviro-idiots are raving about windmills replacing something like this. Insanity.

[Zeppelin]

And T Boone just axed the windfarm project today.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124710043333415571.html

it was pie in the sky anyway...

[pennyfarmer]

I would like to see the lifestyles of these Enviro-Freaks. How many of them have an Ipod hooked up to their bicycle?

I really really hate hypocritical Enviro-Freaks.

[Parley Baer]

This how to create jobs and lower energy costs. Next up is drill, drill, drill and nuclear power, nuclear power, nuclear power.

[NRA2BFree]

Obama’s Czar of energy will shoot this decision down.