It never rains, but it pours.
In addition to the PA-PUC decision earlier today, the EPA Environmental Appeals Board issued this decision today in a case where Sierra Club appealed an air permit for the Deseret coal-fired power plant in Utah, on the grounds that the permit did not include limits on CO2 emissions. While the decision goes against the Club on several counts, it does conclude that EPA MUST include a BACT analysis in air permits for coal-fired power plants. It includes some interesting language that states that, because the Utah Chapter had raised the CO2 issue in its original comments (even before the May 2007 Supreme Court ruling that CO2 was a pollutant subject to regulation by EPA), EPA was obliged to consider CO2 in this permit.
We have raised the CO2 issue in our comments on Longview, but I suspect that our settlement agreement precludes us from raising that issue here. However, we also cited the issue in our comments on TrAILCo power line, and we will certainly raise them with any new power plant. Hence, I think this is a pretty big decision with a lot of relevance for us in WV. Limits on CO2 will be inevitable for new power plants, and may be applicable to existing plants not too many years in the future
JBK
Paula Carrell Paula.Carrell@sierraclub.org 11/13/2008 7:07 PM
----- Forwarded by Paula Carrell/Sierraclub on 11/13/2008 04:06 PM -----
Christina Yagjian/Sierraclub
11/13/2008 03:49 PM
November 13, 2008 Contact: Virginia Cramer, 804-225-9113 x 102
Ruling: Coal Plants Must Limit C02
In a move that signals the start of the our clean energy future, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) ruled today EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit from new coal-fired power plants the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. The decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions. “Today’s decision opens the way for meaningful action to fight global warming and is a major step in bringing about a clean energy economy,” said Joanne Spalding, Sierra Club Senior Attorney who argued the case. “This is one more sign that we must begin repowering, refueling and rebuilding America.”
“The EAB rejected every Bush Administration excuse for failing to regulate the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States. This decision gives the Obama Administration a clean slate to begin building our clean energy economy for the 21st century,” continued Spalding The decision follows a 2007 Supreme Court ruling recognizing carbon dioxide, the principle source of global warming, is a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act.
“Coal plants emit 30% of our nation’s global warming pollution. Building new coal plants without controlling their carbon emissions could wipe out all of the other efforts being undertaken by cities, states and communities across the country," said Bruce Nilles, Director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign. “Everyone has a role to play and it’s time that the coal industry did its part and started living up to its clean coal rhetoric.”
The Sierra Club went before the Environmental Appeals Board in May of 2008 to request that the air permit for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative’s proposed waste coal-fired power plant be overturned because it failed to require any controls on carbon dioxide pollution. Deseret Power’s 110 MW Bonanza plant would have emitted 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.
“Instead of pouring good money after bad trying to fix old coal technology, investors should be looking to wind, solar and energy efficiency technologies that are going to power the economy, create jobs, and help the climate recover,” said Nilles. To get background information and see how the case unfolded visit www.sierraclub.org/coal/plantlist.asp A copy of the decision can be found here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/oa/EAB_Web_Docket.nsf/PSD%20Permit%20Appeals%20(CAA)...
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Christina Marie Yagjian National Conservation Organizer Sierra Club, Global Warming and Energy 202.675.7911
