Group files suit to block coal plant

An environmental group filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to block public financing of a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls because of its potential to exacerbate global warming, pollute surrounding communities and degrade a historic trail.

With seven more coal plants nationwide up for similar rural development loans, an attorney for the group Earthjustice said she hoped the challenge to the Montana plant will scuttle the entire U.S. Department of Agriculture program.

“The federal government should be the last source of funding for coal plants. These are projects that even Wall Street is turning its back on,” said Abigail Dillen, the lead attorney in the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The other plants are in Wyoming, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, Oklahoma and two in Kentucky.

The USDA’s Rural Utilities Service in May gave a regulatory green light to Montana’s 250-megawatt Highwood Generating Station to be built near the Missouri River along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail by the Southern Montana Electric cooperative. It would deliver electricity to 120,000 residents of Montana and market surplus power to out-of-state customers.

Billings Gazette