Lowery joins legal fight against Ga. coal plant

By GREG BLUESTEIN

Associated Press

A prominent civil rights leader joined with a coalition of environmental groups in filing an appeal Wednesday seeking to block a $2 billion plan to build Georgia's first new coal-fired power plant in more than two decades.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery's Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, along with several environmental groups, filed briefs with the Georgia Supreme Court seeking to derail the Longleaf Energy Plant in southwest Georgia.

It's no surprise that green groups, ranging from the Georgia Wildlife Federation to the National Parks Conservation Association, are involved in the legal battle. But it's more unusual for a civil rights group to wade into a fight involving pollution.

Lowery said he joined because he was worried that minorities in Early County, the southwest Georgia county where the plant would be built, would be disproportionately impacted by the coal plant pollution.

"It's a very critical problem," said Lowery, a leader in the 1960s civil rights movement who received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama this month. "And it seems to me that for one reason or another, these projects always find their way into poor communities. We want answers to that as well."

LS Power, the plant's developer, disputed Lowery's assertion. A company official said the site was chosen because of the community's access to necessities such as high-voltage lines, water and ample land.

"Those were the reasons, along with support of the community," said Mike Vogt, Longleaf's project manager. "A large, large majority of the community support the project."

The plant is expected to create at least 100 full-time jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues for the rural county, where almost a quarter of the 12,000 residents live in poverty. It would power more than a half-million homes through utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

It would also emit as much as 9 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, worrying critics who say it could cause health problems in a county that already suffers above-average air pollution.

GreenLaw, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups sought to block the plant and others like it because of the April 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found greenhouse gases were air pollutants.

But even the environmentalists seemed surprised in June 2008 when Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore agreed with them, halting the plant from going forward. They said it was the first time a judge applied the Supreme Court ruling to a case involving an industrial source.

The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the judge's decision in July and ruled that that requiring the state to regulate the greenhouse gas would lead to a "flood of litigation over permits and impose far-reaching economic hardship on the state."

The environmental groups have since appealed the case to the Georgia Supreme Court, which has yet to decide whether to hear the appeal. But Midge Sweet of Georgians for Smart Energy said she and other critics of the plan hope the newfound support from Lowery and others will aid their cause.

"These pollutants will irrevocably compromise the health of Georgia families for 50 years — two generations," said Sweet. "That's not fair. That's not right. Now is the time for the Georgia Supreme Court to review the enormous impact of this plant."