[StBernard] Compliance and Enforcement News Release (Region 6): United States Files Clean Air Lawsuit Against Louisiana Generating

[Westley Annis]

United States Files Clean Air Lawsuit Against Louisiana Generating 

Complaint is part of national initiative to stop illegal pollution from
coal-fired power plants 

  

(Washington, February 18, 2009) - The United States has filed a complaint
against Louisiana Generating alleging that the company violated the Clean
Air Act by operating the Big Cajun 2 Power Plant, a coal-fired power plant
in New Roads, Louisiana, without also installing and operating modern
pollution control equipment after the generating units had undergone major
modifications, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced today.  

  

The complaint alleges that for more than a decade, the Big Cajun 2 Power
Plant has operated without the best available emissions-control technology
required by the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act to control
emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, contributing to formation of
fine particulate matter, smog and acid rain. 

  

The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA, asks the
court to order Louisiana Generating to install and operate appropriate air
pollution control technology in order to substantially reduce sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxide emissions from the Big Cajun 2 Power Plant.  The United
States also seeks civil penalties up to the maximum amount authorized by
law, as well as actions by the energy provider to mitigate the adverse
effects alleged to have been caused by the violations.  

  

Coal-fired power plants collectively produce more pollution than any other
industry in the United States.  They account for nearly 70 percent of sulfur
dioxide emissions each year and 20 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions.
Emissions from coal-fired power plants have detrimental health effects on
asthma sufferers, the elderly and children.  Additionally, these emissions
have been linked to forest degradation, waterway damage, reservoir
contamination and deterioration of stone and copper in buildings. 

  

To combat these adverse effects, the EPA and the Justice Department are
pursuing a national initiative, targeting electric utilities whose
coal-fired power plants violate the law.  The suit was filed in the U.S.
District Court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

  

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