Rusted Sky

Judge douses new coal plants | ajc.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/01/08

Environmentalists nationwide are celebrating Monday's Fulton County Superior Court decision they say will make it harder —- if not impossible —- to build new coal plants.

Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore's ruling is the first to anchor coal-fired power plants to global warming.

In her 19-page order, Moore invalidated a state permit issued last year for a proposed coal plant in southwest Georgia and instructed the state Environmental Protection Division to limit carbon dioxide emissions in any new permit for the plant.

"There is no question that CO2 is 'subject to regulation under the [federal Clean Air] Act,'" Moore wrote.

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that an international panel of scientists has said contributes to global warming by trapping the heat of the sun.

"We think this is the beginning of the end of conventional coal-fired power plants, because of the enormity of their emissions," said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's national campaign against coal.

When the founder of Greenpeace starts talking about how we should fast-track nuclear power, do the environmental zealots listen?

Going Nuclear

In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.

Well, you won't find it there, will ya?

How about Gwyneth Cravens? She was an anti-nucelar activist - she worked to get the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island shut down. Now she wants to go nuclear - and actually had a chance to THINK about her stance while talking with an engineer. Now she has a book out about her conversion.

Ah, heresy is an interesting concept in the environmental community...

But we're going to have to do something. Solar's being blocked, and now coal. Better enjoy this electricity stuff while you can - it might be getting scarce sooner than you think.

J.