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In a ruling believed to be unprecedented, a Georgia judge halted the construction of Dynegy's Longleaf coal-fired power plant because it had not made provisions for reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most widely implicated in man-made global warming.
The judge ruled that the plant must limit its pollution, according to the Sierra Club, which has been waging a campaign against Dynegy, an energy company with plans to build more coal-fired power plants than any other.
The Supreme Court has ruled that carbon dioxide can be regulated under the Clean Air Act, but the state judge's ruling applies that decision to a specific plant before any state or federal regulations have been set in place. For that reason, the impact of the decision is unclear, according to the New York Times.
Still, environmentalists trying to slow the nation's greenhouse gas pollution were emboldened by the decision; they said it should influence permitting of power plants around the country. It almost certainly will be appealed by the Hosuton-based company and/or state regulators, which had not put limits on carbon dioxide when it permitted construction.
Article continues at thedailygreen.com.
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