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."

"The Southern Environmental Law Center and its co-petitioners fail to recognize that state officials based their decisions to permit the plant on sound science," said Americans for Balanced Energy Choices Executive Director Joe Lucas. "The rhetoric used to incite unwarranted fear among local residents concerning health issues and phantom environmental impacts are not supported by facts. Additionally, these lawsuits do nothing to advance realistic solutions to meeting the growing electricity demands in Virginia."

Lucas said that the coal plant will benefit those in the area.

"Our state needs clean, affordable and reliable electricity, and the community needs the stable, high-paying jobs that will improve the quality of life in Wise County," Lucas said, "The plant also will double the community's economic output, and that means tax revenue and better services for area citizens."

ABEC claims the power station will be a model of modern environmental controls and among the cleanest fossil-fuel electric generation plants in the country, using advanced technology, combined with efficient emissions controls, to minimize the overall impact to air, water and land resources.

Additionally, the company and experts from Virginia Tech are exploring ways to store carbon dioxide emissions from the plant in nearby, previously unusable coal seams.

SELC claims the company's plans include little more than setting aside "adequate space for the future deployment of such technology," according to its application.

In a written statement, Dominion said, "This is the most thoroughly considered and strictest air permit in the history of the commonwealth, and we are confident it will be upheld in the courts."

"Each new power plant using advanced clean coal technologies moves forward the reality of near zero emissions from coal-fueled power plants," Lucas said, "That's good for Wise County, Virginia and the environment."

The Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center received support from the General Assembly and is incorporated into Virginia Governor Tim Kaine's "Virginia Energy Plan." It is designed to use a wide range of fuels available in the region, including Virginia coal, waste coal and renewable biomass (organic material from plants and animals).

ABCE claims the location of the Virginia City Power Plant is ideal because of the available coal resources, skilled work force, and the potential to store carbon dioxide emissions.

The Wise County facility is one of several propososed old-style coal plants in the Southeast that SELC is fighting.  SELC claims the four plants (others are in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) would emit some 30 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, roughly the equivalent of pollution from 2 million cars.