Evaluation # 7

Good Evening Professor,

This week, my group had to work on the article "Coal War: Georgia Halts Construction of New Coal- Fired Plant". Our article was written on July 3, 2008 and depicted the first time that a court denied the continuation of the construction of a coal-fired plant in Chattahooche River in Georgia. The jurisdictional reason was that the permit for the plant neither contained a cap of CO2-emissions nor was seeking to implement any technologies to control them. The plant aimed to produce 1,200 mega-watts and as a result this plant would have emitted 8-9 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. In the United States the coal production is responsible for 40% of the C02- emissions. Additionally, coal fired plants have the highest output rate of Co2 per unit of electricity among all fossil fuels. Yet coal is also responsible for 50% of the U.S energy.  

This denial of the continuations of the construction of the coal-fired plant is quite significant in the political as well as in the environmental field since it is the first time that the Clean Air Act has been enforced by the Energy Protection Agency.  The Clean Air Act has been around since 1963. This legislation seeked to reduce smog and air pollution in the sixties. Realistically, the ratification of this act by congress was more or less a charity act for most people were not concerned with the environment back then. As the years passed, this act was modified and amended. The reduction of acid rain called upon and so was the concern of the ozone depletion. With time, this act became for specialized and dealt with pressing environmental issues, yet no organization or government body was assigned to enforce the act. This caused the act to be politically insignificant. Yet in May 2008 a Supreme Court Ruling gave the Energy Protection Agency the power to enforce the Clean Air Act that had been on the shelves for quite some time. This ruling changed the game since now they possess the political power to control, prohibit, and regulate issues associated with the environment. Finally, environmental protection can begin to happen since it can now be politically enforced!

Of course, the power company responsible for the power plant is appealing the the ruling of the Supreme Court of Georgia, arguing that when the permit was given, the EPA did not yet have the power to enforce the Clean Air Act. This is a valid point. The resolution of this political dispute remains to be seen. Yet we cannot deny that the denial was a stepping stone in environmental politics. 

Bibliography:

Scientific American: "Coal War: Georgia Court Halts Construction of New Coal-Fired Plant"

The Sierra Club Organization: "http://nevada.sierraclub.org/conservation/powerplants/EECcoalplant.html"

Energy Protection Agency, The Clean Air Act: "http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/"