Huge KY Coal Power Plant Not Subject To Major Pollution Reduction Rules

[hatrack]

Kentucky's chief environmental official has rejected recommendations that would greatly reduce pollution from a large coal-burning power plant proposed for Muhlenberg County — instead opting for just two changes. Environmentalists who had hoped to make Peabody Energy's Thoroughbred power plant a national model for cleaner-coal technology must now decide whether to go to court to fight Environment and Public Protection Cabinet Secretary LaJuana S. Wilcher's decision.

Last year, a state hearing officer in the environmental cabinet had recommended that the Kentucky Division for Air Quality consider sweeping revisions in the state's air-quality permit for the plant after a court-like hearing, including 70 days of testimony by various environmental experts and state officials. "Politics has trumped, at least at this stage, the analysis of an independent fact-finder," said attorney Hank Graddy of Midway, who frequently handles Sierra Club legal issues in Kentucky. "I read this opinion as saying big business, or the biggest business, is more important than public health."

EDIT

In an order posted on the cabinet Web site, Wilcher told state regulators to update the permit so that it complies with newer federal requirements that will cut toxic mercury emissions by a third. She also set a somewhat tighter cap on emissions of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog. Wilcher declined to be interviewed, but as a result of her ruling, the Kentucky Division for Air Quality will not have to evaluate whether cleaner-burning but more expensive coal technologies should be required at Thoroughbred. She determined that such technology was too preliminary when the permit was issued in 2002.

It also means Peabody won't have to wash its coal before burning to help reduce air pollution because of concerns that it would create unmanageable "gob piles" of coal waste. No additional studies will be required to determine the plant's effect on the environment.

EDIT

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060413/NEWS01/604130385

[Dead_Parrot]

1. Why am I not surprised, at all, by this?

Wanker.