Here’s an idea: Stop illegal pollution from coal plants. The Department of Justice said this week that it has launched a novel campaign to start enforcing rules already on the books, beginning with a 1.5 GW Westar Energy coal plant in northeastern Kansas. As the New York Times reports, the DOJ filed suit against Westar (which the Bush administration put on notice five years ago), charging that it had made major modifications to prolong the plant’s life without installing required pollution controls. That was the good news for coal this week.
And so, our Coal Death Watch continues:
In Great Falls, Mont., last week, developers of the planned 250 MW Highwood coal plant halted work on the project, saying they now intend to build a 120 MW natural gas plant with up to 6 MW of additional power from wind turbines. The local Billings Gazette reports that utility co-ops involved with the project blamed “an aura of uncertainty,” environmental lawsuits, rising costs ($900 million, double their original estimate) and pressure to bring electricity online fast — a sign of the times for energy developers.
On Friday, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle announced plans to replace a coal-fired plant that powers the University of Wisconsin campus with a new biomass facility by 2012, the Associated Press reports. The switch comes in the wake of a lawsuit settlement with environmental groups. As with the Westar Energy plant under fire from the Justice Department, a federal judge said, according to the AP, that state officials upgraded Wisconsin’s Charter Street Plant without going through the permitting process or installing required pollution controls.
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