Environmental groups' legal challenges continue to hold up the proposed Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, a 585-megawatt clean coal-fired power plant in Wise County.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club and Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, submitted three separate court filings challenging the state's actions in granting Dominion Power permission to build a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant in Wise County July 25.
Two of the filings are in the Virginia Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, naming the State Air Pollution Control Board as the defendant.
These filings include an appeal of the "Prevention of Significant Deterioration" air pollution permit and an appeal of the "Maximum Achievable Control Technology" permit. Both permits were issued to Dominion Virginia Power on June 30, 008.
In the PSD appeal, the environmental groups claim that emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants must be controlled. In the MACT appeal, the groups argue that the permit fails to adequately control emissions of hazardous air toxics, such as mercury, which can cause severe neurological deficits in developing fetuses and young children.
The third filing is in the Virginia Supreme Court, and is an appeal from an order of the State Corporation Commission.
On March 30, 2008, the Commission approved the plant, relying on a Virginia statute that requires Dominion to "utilize Virginia coal."
SELC claims the statute violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from unduly interfering with foreign or interstate commerce.
The lawsuits cap off more than a year of administrative procedures, during which tens of thousands of Virginians opposed the project citing air pollution, health impacts and concerns over mountaintop removal mining and global warming.
"We are bringing these challenges now because this coal plant, as permitted, would fail to meet core Clean Air Act requirements," said SELC Senior Attorney Cale Jaffe, "At nearly $2 billion and without any means to capture its carbon dioxide pollution, this plant represents a remarkably bad deal for Virginia."
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I just love it when a crazy radical group tries hijacking the government
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I also like how this article barely skims the surface of the topic. Why does SELC feel that Dominion is obstructing the Commerce Clause? Hm, is it maybe because they are stealing the exact same argument from California? Summary: Clean Air Act + Commerce Clause = Control over Energy, seem a bit odd? (They argue that the commerce clause gives them the right to regulate a car's exhaust and since, according to them, the CO2 which is emitted from a car is in violation with the Clean Air Act they can regulate the amount of CO2 emissions from a car. How do they connect cars to power plants?? Well, if they are allowed to regulate cars' emissions why not power plants?)
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However, the EPA refuses to regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gases because "(1) the Act (Clean Air Act) does not authorize it to issue mandatory regulations to address global climate change, and (2) even if it had the authority to set greenhouse gas emission standards, it would have been unwise to do so because a causal link between greenhouse gases and the increase in global surface air temperatures was not un-equivocally established." So, there ya go SELC, stop wasting our time and stop attacking our country's energy sector.
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" 'What dust we raise,' said the fly upon the chariot wheel" - Aesop
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Without coal we would not be able live like we normally do.51% of America's energy comes from coal.Without coal thousands of people would be out of work. I love the enviroment, but I know that without the use of coal, our country would have lost a large amount of money, energy, and most of all the way we live.Don't put down on coal. It helps you more than you know. Megan Minor,age 13
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