Challenging a Coal Plant in Rogers City
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
ELPC partnered with the Sierra Club, Michigan Environmental Council, and Michigan Land Use Institute to investigate Wolverine Power Cooperative’s plans to build a 600-megawatt circulating fluidized bed boiler (CFB) coal plant in Rogers City, Michigan. Wolverine submitted an air permit application in September 2007, followed by numerous supplements. Also, ELPC assisted local and state organizers in preparing for a local zoning board meeting to challenge Wolverine’s land use permit based on plans to burn petroleum coke and solid municipal waste in addition to coal. After a four-year battle, ELPC and Rogers City residents claimed a major victory when Governor Jennifer Granholm and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE) Director Rebecca Humphries denied the permit needed to build the controversial plant.
The DNRE decision stated there was no need for the proposed power plant, and that alternative methods are available that would supply the customers of the four electric cooperatives that make up Wolverine with electricity at a much cheaper rate than the cost of building a new coal plant. State officials estimated that the proposed plant would increase the electric rates charged by the cooperatives by at least 59.2% even after Wolverine suggested reducing the plant by half.
As new coal plant units are proposed and enter the permitting phase, ELPC is acting as a regional watchdog to identify potential new permit challenges and gaps in legal coverage.
Advocating for Better Development
ELPC attorneys also continue to work with the Michigan Land Use Institute and the Michigan Environmental Council to promote reform of the transportation planning process through the adoption of Context-Sensitive Design policies, and with local community groups in Detroit to challenge the proposed Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal (DIFT). The DIFT proposed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) would likely increase air pollution and truck traffic significantly in a neighborhood that is already subjected to these harms. This increase in pollution and traffic, along with the displacement of homes and businesses required by the DIFT, would threaten the healthy development that has been taking place in this corner of Detroit – the only neighborhood where population has been increasing and community revitalization has been really taking hold.
ELPC believes the Michigan DOT’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project, issued in December 2009, fails to adequately analyze the air pollution-related health impacts and environmental justice impacts, does not objectively consider no-expansion alternatives, and neglects to address possible strategies for mitigating the impacts of the DIFT. ELPC submitted comments on the Draft EIS back in 2005 raising these same issues, to which MDOT and and the Federal Highway Administration provided little response in the Final EIS. ELPC will be submitting comments on the Final EIS, and will continue to monitor the situation and work with local allies such as Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision and the Ecology Center to determine the appropriate next steps.
Tags: Michigan
