Washington (Platts)--27Jun2007

Georgia groups are challenging the air permit of a proposed coal-fired project
and have filed suit over emissions enforcement at such mainstay stations as
Plant Scherer.

The complaint against the proposed 1,200-MW Longleaf coal-fired project could
put permitting for that plant on hold for as much as five months.

The Georgia state permit for the proposed project in Early County is on hold
pending the permit going through an administrative appeals process, according
to Justine Thompson, an attorney with the Georgia Center for Law in the Public
Interest. That legal group, on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Friends of
the Chattahoochee, on June 13 sued Georgia through the Office of State
Administrative Hearings over the permit for that project, which is owned by
Longleaf Energy Resources, a 50/50 venture of LS Power Development and Dynegy.

Georgia authorities began considering final permits for Longleaf last fall
(PCT 10/19/06). The project so far has gained two draft air permits and would
consist of two 600-MW pulverized coal units that burn either Powder River
Basin or Central Appalachian coal.

Thompson told Platts on Tuesday that the Longleaf permit is automatically
stayed pending the litigation and review processes. "We filed [the complaint]
against the state for issuing the permit, and we expect [the project partners]
to intervene." The stay could put the permit on hold for up to five months.

"The proposed project in Early County, Georgia, has received its environmental
permits after a comprehensive state and federal review," Dynegy spokesman
David Byford told Platts. He had no comment on the permit being delayed.

The project partners had responded to the complaint late Tuesday, Thompson
said, but Byford had no comment. The groups' complaints about the project
permit, she said, are that it does not put any limits on carbon dioxide
emissions. 

"We also don't think that [the project partners] used best-available control
technologies" such as an integrated gasification combined-cycle system, she
said. "Third, we think their [emissions] modeling is flawed."

Longleaf submitted its initial application for an air quality permit in
November 2004.

-- Steve Hooks, steve_hooks@platts.com