Environmental group Greenpeace Friday applied to the local government in
Dresden, Saxony, to halt Vattenfall Europe's planned brown coal-fired power
plant Boxberg-R, the green group said.

Greenpeace wants the government to retract permissions for constructing
and operating the 675-MW unit, which is planned to start up in 2011. The plant
would emit about 4.8 million mt of CO2 each year, which Greenpeace objects to.

Greenpeace referred to new scientific knowledge over the increasing speed
of climate change. Brown coal was not justifiable for the Boxberg unit, and
its construction would counteract the climate targets of the federal
government and the Kyoto protocol, the group says.

The green group's argument is based on a law which allows for withdrawal
of operating permission if new facts turn up after the award of the permission
that suggest a threat to the public interest.

Also, Germany's constitution states a duty to the protection of future
generations and Greenpeace said that a plant that increased emissions could
damage the prospects of future generations.

German energy companies plan to build 25 coal-fired units totaling 23,000
MW over the next few years and three of those are brown coal units. Annual CO2
emissions are estimated to be about 140 million mt--equaling the CO2 emissions
of Belgium.