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Friday, May 23, 2008
Ind. Decisions - "Jury rejects pollution suit against New Albany power plant"
James Bruggers of the Louisville Courier Journal reports this morning in a story that begins:
Jurors decided yesterday that improvements at the Gallagher power plant in New Albany, Ind., a decade ago did not trigger a requirement for additional pollution controls as the federal government had claimed.The U.S. District Court jury in Indianapolis said a "reasonable power plant operator" would not have expected the improvements to cause additional sulfur dioxide pollution.
In a 1999 lawsuit, the Clinton administration alleged that Cinergy substantially upgraded and extended the life of six of its power plants in Indiana and Ohio without installing required modern pollution controls.
It was one of several similar lawsuits involving older plants filed under the New Source Review provisions of the federal Clean Air Act. New Source Review ensures that air quality is not significantly degraded by the addition of new or modified factories, industrial boilers and power plants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The unanimous decision yesterday was part of a larger ruling involving the six plants, formerly owned by Cinergy, now part of North Carolina-based Duke Energy. Duke won decisions on 10 of 14 projects at the six plants.
The four it lost were related to work at the Wabash River Power Station in West Terre Haute, Ind., between 1989 and 1992.
Duke spokeswoman Angeline Protogere said the company was "pleased" with the decisions, which showed the projects did not result in additional pollution.
Justice Department spokesman Andrew Ames said the government was pleased to have won the Wabash decisions but "disappointed the jury didn't agree with our position on the other plants."
Ames said the government is weighing whether to appeal those verdicts.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 23, 2008 08:40 AM
Posted to Environment | Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions