For
Immediate Release: April 10, 2012
Contact: Jenna Garland, Sierra Club
(404) 281-6398
Katherine Cummings, Fall Line Alliance for a Clean Environment (478) 232-8010
Amelia Shenstone, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (404) 373-5832
Kurt Ebersbach, Southern Environmental Law Center (404) 521-9900
Justine Thompson, GreenLaw (404) 274-0179
Proposed Ben Hill Coal Plant Cancelled
Power4Georgians in Tenuous Position on Plant Washington After Legal Agreement
Atlanta, GA – Clean air advocates and environmental groups won a victory today
when Power4Georgians (P4G), the only company trying to develop expensive new
coal plants in Georgia, agreed to cancel the proposed Ben Hill coal-fired power
plant. The company also agreed to comply with critical new safeguards
against mercury pollution and invest $5 million in energy efficiency and
renewable projects. The Sierra Club, the Fall Line Alliance for a Clean
Environment (FACE), Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), and the Ogeechee
Riverkeeper, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and GreenLaw,
successfully challenged the permit for Plant Washington issued by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and the settlement agreement is pending
approval by each group. If built, Power4Georgians’ Plant Washington will have
to meet the much more protective emission standards for mercury and other air toxins.
“Before we challenged the permit, Plant Washington was going to send forty
times more mercury into our air and water each year, endangering our most
vulnerable citizens,” said Colleen Kiernan, Director of the Georgia Chapter of
the Sierra Club. “We knew the law was on our side, we challenged
Power4Georgians, and now Georgia’s air, water, and people will be protected.”
Plant Washington now faces its steepest challenge yet, as EPA recently
announced the carbon pollution rule for new coal-fired power plants, which will
require new coal plants to reduce or capture their harmful carbon emissions.
Power4Georgians had not considered carbon capture technology in the original
Plant Washington proposal. In the rule, EPA identified Plant Washington as a
potential “transitional” source whereby it could be exempt from the rule if
there is a final permit and construction commences within a year of when the
rule is published. The carbon pollution rule is expected to be published later
in April.
“Plant Washington continues to lack a complete and legally effective permit
that authorizes construction, and it won’t have one until the mercury permit
amendment is issued, which will take another 30 days at least,” said Kurt
Ebersbach, staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Based on
filings by Power4Georgians in this case, it is clear that they have not done
engineering, selected the boilers, lined up investors, or met any of the
criteria that EPA is looking at to exempt a new source from complying with the
carbon pollution rule.”
Power4Georgians is a consortium of four remaining electric membership
cooperatives in Georgia, after six additional co-operatives left the consortium
citing cost concerns. Cobb EMC, the largest and most prominent investor in P4G,
withdrew funding and support for the consortium and the Plant Washington
proposal in January of this year, leaving a very small base of ratepayers to
shoulder the full $2.1+ billion cost of building the plant. Financial experts
have questioned whether the current membership of Power4Georgians is sufficient
to finance the plant’s construction.
“We’ve fought this plant from day one, because this major new source of air
pollution will also guzzle up to 16 million gallons of water a day from our
already stressed water resources,” said Katherine Helms Cummings, Director of
the Fall Line Alliance for a Clean Environment and Washington County resident.
“It’s doubtful that Plant Washington will be built. The demand for electricity
just isn’t there, and since the plant was announced over four years ago,
cheaper electricity from natural gas and renewables is now readily available.
Still, any proposed coal plant must do the maximum to reduce toxic pollution
and risk to Georgians. Nothing less is acceptable.”
“Today’s agreement is great news for Georgia ratepayers, who will now avoid
$2.3 billion in costs from Plant Ben Hill and reduce their monthly utility bill
through new energy efficiency programs,” said Amelia Shenstone of the Southern
Alliance for Clean Energy. “It also sends a message to those who continue to
support Plant Washington: you can’t ignore the public health costs of dirty
energy sources any more. We hope the remaining EMCs involved in Plant
Washington will look into cleaner, cheaper ways to provide electricity to their
members.”
The cancellation of Plant Ben Hill marks 168 total coal plant proposals
cancelled across the US due to changing market conditions, legal challenges,
and local opposition. In December 2011, New Jersey-based LS Power cancelled the
Plant Longleaf coal plant proposal, which would have been built in Early
County, GA. Further, 106 coal plants have been scheduled for retirement,
including two units at Plant Branch near Milledgeville that were recently
approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission.
“The cancellation of Plant Ben Hill is just one more sign that coal is
declining,” says Justine Thompson, attorney for GreenLaw that has been working
with the community adjacent to the proposed Plant Ben Hill to oppose the
construction of the plant. “Georgia has a promising future – but to be a
serious player in the global economy while also ensuring that we have clean air
and water, Georgia needs to embrace energy efficiency and more renewable
sources of energy. We are now moving one step closer to that goal.”
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