BILLINGS - Environmental groups citing the dangers of global warming want a state panel to revoke the permit for a 385-megawatt coal plant near Gillette, Wyoming.
Construction of the $1.34 billion Dry Fork Station began Oct. 17. Gov. David Freudenthal is scheduled to attend a groundbreaking ceremony at the site Friday. It is being built by the Basin Electric Power Cooperative. The groups that filed the permit appeal on Thursday with the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council say Dry Fork would emit more than 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Carbon dioxide is considered a prime cause of global warming.
The permit appeal also claims the plant would cause excessive mercury, sulfur dioxide and particulate pollution. Basin Electric Vice President Floyd Robb said the Bismark, N.D., utility company was reviewing the environmentalists' appeal. He said the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality had thoroughly reviewed the company's proposal before granting it an air quality permit on Oct. 15.
The permit appeal was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of three other groups, the Sierra Club, the Powder River Basin Resources Council and the Wyoming Outdoor Council. No hearing date has been set. The challenge to the Wyoming plant is the latest in a string of a legal maneuverings by environmental groups seeking to slow or stop new coal plant construction nationwide. Power plants are among the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the country.