Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings today issued a decision to halt construction of Georgia’s first proposed Coal-Fired power plant in twenty years. Judge Thelma Wyatt has charged the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) with failing to REGULATE CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS from the plant, a decision that will have NATIONWIDE APPLICATION. This is the first time since the April 2, 2007 Supreme Court Decision which required the EPA to regulate Carbon Dioxide Emissions, that the ruling has been applied to emissions from industrial sources like Coal Fired Power Plants.
Students with the Southern Energy Network, community members, and concerned citizens from around the state have been fighting Dyengy’s LongLeaf Proposal in the courts, in shareholder meetings, and in the streets for nearly Seven years.
Yet, today’s ruling is significant far beyond the borders of Georgia, as it puts up yet another economic, political, and beauricratic hurtle for those attempting to develop new Coal-fired power plants in the country. (including the 5 other Coal Plants Dyengy is attempting to build across the country). As one plant falls, we can use these victories to hault the horrors of similar proposals across the country.
Plaintiffs in the Georgia Dynegy case argued that a look into best available control technologies for carbon dioxide were not included when the Longleaf Air Quality permit was issued. Dyengy now has the option of re-completing the air-quality permit application process (which they began 5 1/2 years ago) or appealing the case and risk taking their arguments to the supreme court. The Judge also ruled on several other accounts, including Fine Particulate matter control, that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division was out of compliance with regulations required in writing air quality permits.
Today’s ruling will act as a landmark decision in the fight to transform America’s energy economy away from the dirty grip of our coal affliction and onto a renewable energy and energy efficiency fueled future.
Party Invitations Coming Soon.
This is great! This shows that now the government is getting more involved in environmental issues such as CO2 emissions, which are severely damagaging our atmosphere and oceanic environments. Hopefully this will inspire a trend and more of these plants can be prevented!
(Visit blog.ourtask.org for more info on environmental/social issues and victories in those fields)
This is good news, and I am certain that our student activists at Georgia colleges and universities played a part in bringing this about.
this is great. good work georgia students and everyone else. i feel that is very significant that this plant was stopped in georgia on the same day that a dozen Earth First! activists were arrested for blockading Dominion Power’s corporate headquarters protesting a coal plant in Virginia. The type of action that went down in Virginia is the groundswell. it creates the baseline hostility to coal developments on which big wins like the one in georgia are built.
thanks and much love to everyone in both of these states that i’ve called home.
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hooray!