|
NEWS
RELEASE
Contact: Jim Warren
December 19,
2007
919-416-5077
Group Calls Attorney General into Power
Plant Fight
Cooper should avoid expensive litigation
against state, back federal clean air law
Durham, NC – State Attorney General Roy Cooper is
being urged to protect state taxpayers from expensive, multi-pronged
litigation – and from air pollution and accelerating global warming – by
denying Duke Energy a permit to build a coal-fired power plant near
Charlotte. With US coal plants being abandoned by the dozen due to the
growing climate crisis, pressure is mounting for the state or Duke CEO Jim
Rogers to cancel the plant and make a rapid turn to energy efficiency in
order to cut greenhouse gases.
“Now is not the time for North Carolina to be
the state to allow the ‘last coal plant,’” watchdog group NC WARN
told Cooper today in a letter from attorney John Runkle.
The US EPA and National Parks Service recently joined
45 environmental, health and civic groups by weighing in against the
Cliffside plant. The federal agencies called on state regulators to delay
a pollution permit pending resolution of a federal Clean Air Act lawsuit
against Duke Energy, and a complete re-examination of a state air pollution
permit deemed unlawful by legal observers.
As attorney general, Cooper is legal counsel for state
regulators under the Easley administration. , NC WARN said the state
should not allow Duke Energy to keep cutting corners. “Given the flaws in
the permit, the Division should, upon advice of counsel, deny the permit
application or undertake the full review required” under federal law.
In addition to the federal lawsuit, litigation is
likely should the state issue an air permit, and a legal action against the
state for the Cliffside water permit is underway in a state administrative
court.
The letter noted that Cooper has taken the leadership
on a number of air quality issues, especially regarding the impacts of air
pollution from out-of-state coal plants.
“We want Mr. Cooper to now apply that same legal
toughness to in-state power companies,” NC WARN director Jim Warren
explained today. “It’s harder for politicians to stand up to giant
homegrown corporations, but the worsening climate emergency requires a new
kind of leadership – and Mr. Cooper can become a champion at this critical
time.”
Monday, 11 environmental groups called directly on
Duke CEO Jim Rogers to back his public statements of climate concern by
cancelling the plant, which would emit six million tons of CO2 each year,
and to avoid a lengthy, contentious battle. Hundreds – possibly thousands
– of state residents from across the political spectrum are calling on the
nationally prominent CEO to change course and lead the North Carolina
charge against global warming.
##
NC WARN is a grassroots
non-profit using science and activism to tackle climate change and reduce
hazards to public health and the environment from nuclear power and other
polluting electricity production,
and working for a transition to safe, economical energy in North
Carolina.
|
