Clean Air In the News

ALBANY — Environmental activists seeking to halt the permitting of a coal power plant’s construction in Blakely stopped in Albany Tuesday to voice pollution concerns about the plant.

The proposed plant, once constructed, would emit about nine million tons of carbon dioxide, which is linked by scientific studies to global warming conditions, said Leah Edwards, a development associate with the Sierra Group.

Edwards and Jennette Gayer, an advocate with Environment Georgia, are on a statewide tour in an effort to halt the permitting of the pulverized coal plant’s construction, Gayer said.

Because the plant’s electricity-producing technology is so outdated, there are many other ways to produce power that would be more environmentally friendly, Edwards said.

“It’s a dinosaur of a plant; the most antiquated technology we can be using,” Edwards said about the plant. “It causes asthma and all sorts of lung problems (through pollutants). It emits mercury into the rivers, which fish eat and then we take it in and it can make you sick.”

The plant currently has a draft permit, meaning that a company has proposed construction plans for the plant, Edwards said. The Environmental Protection Division has held public hearings on the plant and is considering the opinions expressed in those hearings, she said.

The plant is slated to receive its final permit in May, Gayer said.

“The state is lining up and heading in the wrong way in energy,” Gayer said Tuesday afternoon. “We need to start looking at renewable energy, wind energy, sun energy. We’re going all over the state, asking the governor to halt the permitting of the plant.”

The plant would emit enough pollution to equal having an additional 1.3 million cars on Georgia highways each year, Gayer said.

The average power plant produces about 600 megawatts of electricity each year, but the proposed plant would produce about 1,200 megawatts, Gayer said.