Group drops challenge to Sandwich power plant expansion
By Tanner SteningPosted Oct 5, 2018
SANDWICH — The Conservation Law Foundation has dropped its appeal challenging the expansion of the Canal Generating Plant, citing a recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision upholding the cap regulation that imposed declining limits on carbon dioxide emissions from plants in Massachusetts, according to a statement from CLF.
New England Power Generators sued the state’s Department of Environmental Protection after the regulation was adopted by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs in 2017, claiming, among other things, that the rule did not apply to the electric sector, and that the state had exceeded its authority in issuing it.
The regulation was a “major provision” of the state’s 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act requiring the state to limit the amount of statewide carbon pollution, including pollution from electric power plants, the statement says. CLF was “instrumental in passing the Global Warming Solutions Act and continues to fight for power generators to transition to affordable and clean renewable energy sources,” according to the statement.
“The power industry tried every trick in the book to avoid the inevitable, and the state’s highest court rejected each one,” said David Ismay, senior attorney at CLF. “The goal of our appeals was to ensure these fossil fuel power generators would reduce their emissions year after year for the sake of our communities and the climate. And the recent Supreme Judicial Court ruling has done just that.”
Ismay said previously that if the regulation were upheld, the Conservation Law Foundation would have little incentive to continue its appeal.
“We still have a long way to go in the fight to halt climate change and build a thriving clean energy economy, but for the time being, our work with these plants is done,” he said.
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