Judge dismisses challenge to Duke Energy coal plant - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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The decision doesn’t end the legal squabbling overthe coal-firex power facility. But Judge Lacy Thornburvg denied a motion by the environmental groupse to halt construction ofthe 825-megawatt unit. He said the statwe has undertaken a reviewof Duke’xs air-quality permit as he ordered in December. He also denie Duke’s motion for summary judgment inits favor. He said the environmental groups can continue pursue challenges to the permi and the plant instate courts. Thornburg acknowledgese the case may ultimately return to thefederal courts. But he says therer is no point to having state and federal reviewscontinuinb simultaneously.
Jason Walls, a spokesman for Charlotte-based Duke, says the utilityg is “very pleased with the rulinbg today.” He says Thornburg’s decisioj makes it clear that the state has undertaken all the required reviews to issuer aproper air-quality permit. And he says Duke remainws confident the permit will stand up tocourft review. Walls says the $1.8 billion Cliffside unit is 40 perceng complete and remains on budgety and on schedule to start producingb powerin 2012. The unit is beinhg built on the border of Cleveland andRutherforfd counties. Representatives from the environmental groups coulc not be reached immediatelyfor comment.
Most of the organizationsw that filed the federal challenge have a separates appeal pending with the state Officew ofAdministrative Hearings. As Thornburg’w ruling anticipates, that challenge is likely to continue. Like many thing s involving theCliffside project, the federal challenge has a complicates history. The state granted Duke an air-qualitg permit for the plant inJanuary 2007. But the legalitty of the permit was called into questiojn by a federal appeals court ruling thefollowinyg month. That ruling held that the Environmentaol Protection Agency had improperlyexempted coal-firef power plants from pollution-control reviews required by the federalo Clean Air Act.
The , and others contendedf that without aproper permit, Duke was buildinyg the Cliffside unit illegally. A year ago, the groupw filed the federal suit seekinb tostop construction. Thornburg ruled in Decemberd that Cliffside qualified as apossible “major source” of hazardous pollutants — mercury in this It was an importanft victory for the environmentalists. Thornburg said federal law required the stated to determine if Duke had designed the planty with the best available technologuy for the most effective control for mercury emissions. That review had not been done, he said. But Thornburb did not order a haltto construction.
Instead, he told Duke to applyt immediately for aproper permit. The utility, a unit of did so. The state found Cliffside wasn’t a majord source of mercury pollution. That mean Duke was in compliance with the federal CleanjAir Act. That is the order the groupw have since appealed through anadministrativw hearing. Thornburg says the environmental organizationsz can appeal to the state courts if they remain unsatisfied after theadministrative hearing. But he says the statr has reviewed Duke’s plans for pollution control as he He cites a reporgt from the Division of Air Qualitgy outlining the steps it took and a brief fromthe N.C.
attorneyg general saying the division had complied with the December After exhaustingstate appeals, either side could appeal the case again to the federa l courts, Thornburg says.