DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter | Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:00 am
Conservation groups said they will go to state District Court to appeal Thursday's findings by the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council.
The council reportedly issued a summary judgment dismissing the groups' appeal of an air pollution permit for the Dry Fork Station coal-fired power plant now under construction north of Gillette.
"This power plant as permitted will degrade Gillette's air for decades to come. We need to make sure this project meets every legal obligation to protect the health of Wyoming communities before such a huge commitment is made," said Shannon Anderson, organizer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council.
A spokesman for Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which owns Dry Fork Station, said late Thursday afternoon that the company had not received direct confirmation of the council's actions and could not comment.
The appeal was brought by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, on behalf of the Powder River Basin Resource Council and Sierra Club. Anderson said coal-fired technology is obsolete, and the groups hope to force Basin Electric and state regulators to consider technologies that capture a bigger portion of CO2 emissions, such as critical, super-critical and coal-gasification technology.
Just last week the federal Environmental Appeals Board issued a ruling against the Environmental Protection Agency's inaction on regulating greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants and ordered the agency to rework the issue.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, which has primacy regarding the Clean Air Act in Wyoming, has long held that it doesn't have to regulate greenhouse gases. In fact, state legislators passed a law in 1998 prohibiting the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
"DEQ relied on the same excuses that were rejected by the federal appeals board of the EPA, and its decision to ignore greenhouse gases is equally flawed," staff attorney at Earthjustice Robin Cooley said in a prepared statement.
Dry Fork Station is estimated to produce 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide and 25.3 tons of methane - the most potent greenhouse gas - each year for at least the next 40 years.
Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com.
* Last we knew: Environmental groups appealed the air pollution permit granted to Dry Fork Station, a 385-megawatt coal-fired power plant now under construction near Gillette.
* The latest: The appeal was dismissed on Thursday.
* What's next: Environmental groups say they'll pursue the matter in state District Court.]]->