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LS Power to Regulate Hazardous Air Pollution from Sandy Creek Coal Plant
Case Updates:
December 31, 2011
After years of litigation, Sierra Club and LS Power have reached an agreement that will impose strict new emission limits for air pollution at the Sandy Creek coal plant in Riesel, Texas. The settlement requires LS Power to alter the plant’s air permit to include more stringent limits for mercury and particulate matter pollution, among other things.
Also, as part of the agreement, LS Power will abandon plans to build the Plum Point II coal plant in Arkansas and the Longleaf coal plant in Georgia. Sierra Club and its allies fought the Longleaf plant for a decade, and this decision to not move forward with the two projects marks the 160th and 161st proposed coal plants canceled since Sierra Club launched its campaign in 2005 to move the nation Beyond Coal.
November 23, 2010
In a monumental legal victory, on November 23, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Sandy Creek’s ongoing construction of the Riesel coal-fired power plant is in violation of the Clean Air Act because the company does not have a maximum achievable control technology (MACT) permit for the plant. The Riesel coal plant would be a major source of hazardous air pollutants like mercury, and the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality unlawfully approved the coal plant when it failed to set stringent emission limits for this hazardous air pollution from the plant.
Sierra Club and Public Citizen originally challenged Sandy Creek’s failure to obtain a MACT permit for the Riesel coal plant in 2008, and have fought the plant all the way to the Fifth Circuit. This latest decision represents a monumental victory in Sierra Club’s fight to protect public health and move the nation beyond coal.
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