$2 billion coal power plant gets approval, maybe

Longleaf Energy Station to be built on Chattahoochee River The members and guests of the Colquitt/Miller Co. Chamber of Commerce (COC) monthly breakfast heard the guest speaker announce that his company had just received word that morning of the court decision to allow the continuing of construction of the first coal-powered power plant in Georgia in two decades.

After a welcome to the crowd Friday, January 11, by COC Chairman Russ Henley, he requested all the local reports of what was going on in the city and county. Dr. Carl Marshall was asked to bless the food.

After a delicious breakfast, Senator John Bullock introduced the Director of Project Development, Michael F. Vogt, from LS Power Development out of St. Louis, MO. Sen. Bullock requested Mr. Vogt to tell some of the steps and progress thus far in the power plant.

Vogt told the crowd some of the history of LS Power and that the company had developed nine natural gas facilities totaling 5700 MWs and two coal-fired plants totaling 1565 MWs now under construction in Arkansas and Texas.

Michael Vogt The Longleaf project will be located in Early County on the east side of the Chattahoochee River across the river from Farley Nuclear Plant and above Georgia-Pacific plant at Cedar Springs.

Mr. Vogt explained some of the permits involved in the process of developing a plant in this area of the U.S.A., and how the water treatment and ash would be disposed of. He told how the estimated $2 billion investment in this area would help in the approximate fiveyear construction of the plant.

Vogt stated that along with the 800 construction jobs and up to 1200 jobs at peak periods, there would be from 100-125 permanent jobs. The economic benefits from the project in jobs, tax revenue and local expenditures are expected to be stable and long lasting given the project's expected useful life of 40+ years.

After the presentation, a question and answer session followed with Mr. Vogt assuring those concerned about the environment that EPD permits that Longleaf would be under will be much stricter than the plants now operating near the river with water and pollutant discharge and solid waste disposal.

Chairman Henley thanked Sen. Bullock for requesting the program and thanked Mr. Vogt for his presentation of what could be expected in the next few years.

In a news release Friday, January 11, in The Albany Herald, an administrative law judge in Atlanta rejected a bid to block construction of a coal-fired power plant in Early County.

Environmental activists had challenged a state permit issued last spring for the 1,200-megawatt Longleaf Energy Station charging that the plant would spew a toxic mixture of pollutants into the air.

Judge Stephanie Howells sided with lawyers representing the state Environmental Protection Division, who argued that the agency had the authority and expertise to set appropriate emissions limits for the project.

"The limits imposed by EPD are reasonable and supported by law," Howells wrote on the last page of the 107-page decision. "EPD's reasonable decisions should be afforded a measure of deference."

The $2 billion project, subject to the outcome of an appeal of Friday's ruling, would become the 11th coal-burning power plant in Georgia and the first to be built in a quarter-century.

Utilities had switched over to natural gas-fired plants in the last two decades, but coal has become desirable again from a financial standpoint because of rising gas prices.

The project has drawn strong support from many residents in that part of Southwest Georgia because of the job-creating promise it holds for an area chronically beset with poverty and unemployment.

Lawyers who filed the case said they would appeal and urge the courts to halt construction until the matter is resolved.

Justine Thompson, director of GreenLaw, said she is confidentof winning an appeal for her clients, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Chattahoochee.

Michael Vogt, director of project development for LS Power, stated that the company was pleased with the ruling. LS Power is planning the Longleaf station in a joint venture with Houston-based Dynegy.

"It validates what we said all along," Vogt said. "We went through a thorough process and felt that we'd done it properly."