13. AIR POLLUTION : Enviro groups sue EPA over Ky. coal plant permits(11/11/2009)

Robin Bravender, E&E reporter

Two environmental groups are asking a federal court to order U.S. EPA to block construction of three planned Kentucky coal plants due to flaws in the state's clean air permitting program.

The Sierra Club and Indiana-based Valley Watch sued the agency last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The groups argue that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson failed to prevent construction of the three plants, despite her obligation to do so under the Clean Air Act.

The three proposed plants are the East Kentucky Power Cooperative's 278-megawatt Smith plant slated for Clark County; ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy Corp.'s Kentucky NewGas plant, a coal-to-gas project near Central City in Muhlenberg County; and Erora Group's Cash Creek project in Henderson County, which would produce pipeline-quality natural gas and electricity from Kentucky coal.

Sierra Club and Valley Watch argue that Kentucky's permitting program is flawed because it does not mandate that state regulators require effective nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission controls when issuing air quality permits.

NOx and other pollutants contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog. Smog can cause respiratory problems and cardiovascular illnesses and contributes to premature mortality.

In Kentucky, "you can build a major source of NOx and not do any analysis of whether it's going to make the smog problem worse," said Sierra Club counsel Robert Ukeiley. "The Clean Air Act says that when a state's permitting program is defective, then EPA can't let the state issue permits for new major sources of air pollution until they've fixed the permitting program."

EPA's press office was not immediately available for comment.