Judge rules for environmental groups in challenge to virginia power plant

(Richmond, VA) - In a momentous victory for clean energy advocates in Virginia, a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled today that the State Air Pollution Control Board violated federal environmental law in permitting Dominion Power's coal-fired power plant in Wise County in the southwest corner of the state.

Judge Margaret P. Spencer agreed with a coalition of environmental groups that the "escape hatch" in Dominion's Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) permit rendered that permit unlawful. The Clean Air Act's MACT program regulates emissions of hazardous air toxics, such as mercury, which can cause severe neurological deficits in infants, fetuses and young children. Judge Spencer ruled that the "mercury emission limit … must be set 'irrespective of cost or achievability,'" and that the "escape hatch" was "violative of the laws addressing pre-construction mandates."

When Congress passed the Clean Air Act, it required that such permits be obtained before construction begins on a power plant, to ensure that it is designed and built in a way to protect the public health and welfare. Dominion, which started construction a week after the Virginia air board approved the permits in June 2008, has said the plant is about 20 percent complete. The judge's ruling granted the coalition's requested relief, which was to invalidate the MACT permit.

Read the rest of the coalition's press release on our blog: http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/blog/?p=1905