Energy Watch: A Kentucky victory in the fight against dirty coal
A proposed power plant in Kentucky has become the latest coal-burning facility rejected over concerns about climate-disrupting pollution.
The Kentucky State Office of Administrative Hearings sided this week with the Sierra Club and state regulators by nixing a 600-megawatt plant proposed by Kentucky Mountain Power, a subsidiary of Virginia-based EnviroPower. KMP wanted to build a coal plant in eastern Kentucky's Knott County using a permit that did not require modern pollution controls.
Besides emitting harmful levels of mercury and asthma-causing air pollution, the KMP plant also had no plans to capture carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.
"This is a victory for clean air and clean energy," said Wallace McMullen, energy chair of the Sierra Club Cumberland Chapter. "We can all breathe a little easier and get to work building the clean energy future that will put us on the path to a good economy in the 21st century."
The proposed KMP plant is the fourth such U.S. facility rejected this month; the others were in Illinois, Utah and Wisconsin. National, more than 70 proposed coal plants have been defeated or abandoned, and the Sierra Club and its allies are fighting more than 60 other projects.
The Kentucky State Office of Administrative Hearings sided this week with the Sierra Club and state regulators by nixing a 600-megawatt plant proposed by Kentucky Mountain Power, a subsidiary of Virginia-based EnviroPower. KMP wanted to build a coal plant in eastern Kentucky's Knott County using a permit that did not require modern pollution controls.
Besides emitting harmful levels of mercury and asthma-causing air pollution, the KMP plant also had no plans to capture carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.
"This is a victory for clean air and clean energy," said Wallace McMullen, energy chair of the Sierra Club Cumberland Chapter. "We can all breathe a little easier and get to work building the clean energy future that will put us on the path to a good economy in the 21st century."
The proposed KMP plant is the fourth such U.S. facility rejected this month; the others were in Illinois, Utah and Wisconsin. National, more than 70 proposed coal plants have been defeated or abandoned, and the Sierra Club and its allies are fighting more than 60 other projects.
Tags
Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.