Just last week, the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board unanimously granted air quality permits to Dominion Virginia Power for its proposed $1.8 billion coal-fired plant in Wise County. But after a menacing letter from Gov. Tim Kaine, the Air Board didn't consider carbon dioxide emissions in its ruling.
Big mistake.
A judge today effectively halted construction of a proposed coal-fired power plant in Georgia, ruling Massachusetts vs. EPA means carbon dioxide emissions must be regulated:
The decision overturns an administrative court’s ruling that affirmed the state Environmental Protection Division’s (EPD) decision to issue an air pollution permit for Dynegy’s Longleaf plant. In practical terms, Dynegy cannot begin construction of the plant unless it can obtain a valid permit from EPD that complies with the Court’s ruling. The Judge held that EPD must limit the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the plant, a decision that will have far-reaching implications nationwide; this is the first time since the April 2, 2007, Supreme Court decision requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate CO2 that a court has applied that standard to CO2 from an industrial source rather than from motor vehicles.
ThinkProgress.org says this ruling is exactly what companies like Dynegy and Dominion have feared:
The $2 billion, 1200 megawatt plant — the first proposed in Georgia in over 20 years — was to be built by Dynegy Inc., the Houston-based energy company with several other proposed coal-fired power plants across the country. Dynegy and other fossil fuel polluters have been scrambling to get new plants started in anticipation of future limits on greenhouse gases, before investors and ratepayers recognize the risk.
Today's ruling is a huge boost to the Southern Environmental Law Center, leading a legal challenge to the Wise County plant on behalf of a coalition including Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
As for Gov. Kaine ... you've spent the last year championing this coal plant as a cure-all for southwest Virginia's economic woes, global warming and green jobs be damned. Now a judge is very likely to rule that your efforts have been in violation of the Clean Air Act, leaving southwest Virginia without the jobs, Virginia behind the curve on a clean energy future and you with a deeply scarred legacy. There are no winners here.
Also, what does this ruling imply for EXISTING coal-fired power plants?
But my secondary answer is that this is what happens when our leaders refuse to lead. Congress and the president could've established an effective regulatory system years ago but have refused every opportunity to act. So now we're left to individual judges protecting us from global warming and us trying to read the tea leaves of the decision. What a mess. Every elected official in Washington who's opposed climate action should be ashamed.
We may have been hoping our leaders would willingly make the right decision but will gladly accept it if they are unwillingly forced to make the right decision. At least I will.
Now, if Kaine would only read the writing on the wall. Instead of desperately clinging to coal, an energy whose time is quickly passing, will he set Virginia moving in the right direction - toward clean energy and green jobs? He can still save his legacy. But only if he spends the rest of his time turning our Commonwealth around instead of backing Dominion in what now (fingers crossed big time) may be a failing effort due to the courts and the EPA.
Dare I say it? Dare I think it? Some good news regarding our future energy sources.
We need leaders in Richmond who'll fight for real solutions to global warming. Clean energy. Green jobs. THEN I'll celebrate!
To ensure a reliable and adequate supply of electricity, to meet the utility's projected native load obligations and to promote economic development, a utility may at any time, after the expiration or termination of capped rates, petition the Commission for approval of a rate adjustment clause for recovery on a timely and current basis from customers of the costs of (i) a coal-fueled generation facility that utilizes Virginia coal and is located in the coalfield region of the Commonwealth, as described in ยง 15.2-6002, regardless of whether such facility is located within or without the utility's service territory, (ii) one or more other generation facilities, or (iii) one or more major unit modifications of generation facilities; however, such a petition concerning facilities described in clause (ii) that utilize nuclear power, facilities described in clause (ii) that are coal-fueled and will be built by a Phase I utility, or facilities described in clause (i) may also be filed before the expiration or termination of capped rates. A utility that constructs any such facility shall have the right to recover the costs of the facility, as accrued against income, through its rates, including projected construction work in progress, and any associated allowance for funds used during construction, planning, development and construction costs, life-cycle costs, and costs of infrastructure associated therewith, plus, as an incentive to undertake such projects, an enhanced rate of return on common equity calculated as specified below.
The lack of interest by the voting populace of Virginia is very telling.
But I'm looking at it from the perspective that stopping a plant from being built is equal to taking one off line. Just in the case, it's going off line before it goes on line... which is even better because it will never get to contribute to GW.
Also, what would be the regulatory framework for CO2 emissions that the Board would need to come up with? What way is their to stop CO2 production other than stopping carbon-combustion processes? If it applies to new permits for plants, then it must apply to motor vehicles too. What then?