Wow, on the very same day Dominion announces it has begun construction on its freshly approved coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia, a Georgia Court strikes down an air pollution permit for a 1200mw coal plant Early County, Georgia, effectively halting construction. When you look at the rationale for the ruling you can’t help but sense a bit of dramatic foreshadowing.
Chief among several administrative grounds for the Court’s reversal was the fact that the Georgia permit failed to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, which, according to the Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, is an air pollutant to be regulated. Dominion should be fine then, no? Their CO2 emissions are regulated, right? Oh wait.
The Virginia Air Board’s permit for the Wise County plant doesn’t even address the plant’s 5.4 million tons of CO2 emissions per year (the equivalent of 1 million new cars on the road). While it’s possible that the judge from Georgia could turn out to be a kook (pretty unlikely), this ruling looks like it might be the ghost of litigation future for Dominion.
There’s more.
The Georgia court also found that the plant did not meet the standards for a “major emitting facility” mandated by the Clean Air Act in that the proposed plant did not use the best available control technology, which in this case was integrated gasification combined cycle technology (IGCC). Guess what other coal-fired power plant doesn’t utilize IGCC technology? Ouch. Seriously, Dominion must have read this decision and doubled the size of their legal department.
It may turn out that because Dominion is burning refuse coal and some biomass that the Virginia court will find that their technology is the best available. It’s also possible that the court will take a long look at IGCC technology and say to Dominion “Um, this is better than what you were going to build. You need new permits. See you in 5 years.”
And even if the Virginia court finds that Dominion is using OK technology, the unregulated CO2 emissions are a serious hitch. Massachuestts v. EPA is pretty unambiguous in classifying CO2 as a pollutant meriting regulation. This ain’t over, Dominion.
