Green groups sue U.S. government to stop coal plant

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2338210820070724

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Green groups said they filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop a U.S. government office from funding the building of a coal-fired power station until it discloses the global warming impacts of the plant.

The Rural Utilities Service, a Great Depression-era program to bring power to rural areas, agreed in May to fund the majority of the $720 million, 250-megawatt Highwood Generating Station near Great Falls, Montana. The office is considering helping to fund billions more for an additional six coal-fired power plants from Wyoming to Kentucky.

The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by environmental law firm Earthjustice, green group the Sierra Club and others. It claims RUS broke federal environmental laws by not disclosing the impacts of the Montana plant and that it did not consider other power generation sources such as wind power before moving ahead with funding for it.

The suit seeks to stop the office, part of the Department of Agriculture, from approving federal loan funds for the plants until it confronts the global warming impacts of coal burning. The loan rates would be about 2 percentage points lower than commercial rates.

<more>

[phantom power]

1. That reminds me of a thing I heard on NPR.

A discussion about requiring businesses (particularly power generation) to publish estimates of their carbon footprint. They said it's required in Britain.

[MasonJar]

2. Thank God for Earthjustice!

[bananas]

3. And the Sierra Club!

[NNadir]

4. The Sierra Club has no serious program to displace fossil fuels.

They are better doing the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortilla_Curtain">Tortilla Curtain game.

The Sierra Club has consistently opposed the only exajoule scale form of continuous energy that is demonstrated as an alternative to coal fired plants. Since they have not called for a coal phase out, or produced a single document suggesting a rational industrial procedure for doing so, one can only assume that they couldn't care less about coal.

Mostly they do this "by 2050" mindless crap and very little else:

http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2007-01-31a.asp

Note that even the "2050" strategy (and most people now living will not be there to check up on how stupid it was) speaks only in vague percentages - even that with a huge fraction of the energy supply still derived from fossil fuels.

It has never occurred to the members of the modern Sierra Club as far as I can tell that "lighting up the border" will require energy.

Unknown to the Sierra Club, climate change will not take place in 2050. It is happening now. I thought everybody knew that, but apparently not.

[bananas]

5. If you are anti-Sierra Club - you are pro-coal

[Dogmudgeon]

6. A boy has never wept, nor dashed a thousand kin.

--p!

[Dead_Parrot]

8. "60-80% emissions reductions by 2050"

= Fucked.

Too little, too late.

It's sad that Dave Hamilton thinks this is "a destination", but not really a surprise.

"We can reduce carbon emissions by 1,100-1,200 million metric tons annually by 2030 with aggressive deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy alone"
:rofl:
Pity about the other 11,000,000,000 tons. But hey, it's renewable. Doubleplus good.

[bananas]

10. Right now, they're the only ones getting coal plants stopped

[jpak]

11. Neither does the Nuclear Energy Institute, Excelon, The Southern Co., Duke Power or Westinghouse

(all participants in Dick Cheney's Energy Task Farce)

There are $12 billion in CheneyBucks for new nuclear plants.

None are currently under construction...and none of the proposed new nuclear plants will replace an existing coal-fired plant or result in the cancellation of a proposed coal-fired plant.

[bananas]

12. "Sierra Club, Congressmen, Dr. James Hansen, Energy Experts Unveil Energy Report"

The trolls are trying to discredit James Hansen now.

[Nihil]

7. Well, it's a start ...

... though a very limited one if you actually read it ...

> Green groups said they filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop
> a U.S. government office from funding the building of a coal-fired
> power station until it discloses the global warming impacts of the plant.

In other words, they are not trying to stop the construction of this
small (250MW) coal-fired generator, they are not trying to block the
use of federal fund for coal permanently (just temporarily), they are
not placing any conditions on the factual content of the "disclosure"
that will allow the status quo to be restored ... they are just putting
a tiny, tiny stake in the ground (in case the coal industry decides to
stomp them with the costs for delaying a project).

Still, great oaks from little acorns grow (only to be chopped down and
burned in someone's stove or smoked into BBQ charcoal).

[bananas]

9. They got the TXU coal plants stopped

Right now, these environmental groups are the only ones getting coal plants stopped.
They are on the front lines - and the pro-nukes shoot them in the back.
Heckuva job, nukies!

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=sierra+club+txu+coal&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Web Results 1 - 10 of about 66,700 for sierra club txu coal. (0.10 seconds)

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