Roy Cooper reportedly opposes legislation in the General Assembly that would give Progress Energy a one-year delay in meeting standards established by the Clean Smokestacks Act.
The reason: Cooper thinks that such a move could negatively impact the state’s suit against the Tennessee Valley Authority.
As reported by the News & Observer:
Attorney General Roy Cooper has privately warned lawmakers that allowing Progress to delay without demanding guarantees of lower pollution imperils the state’s long-running lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat who supports a switch to natural gas. The TVA’s coal-burning power plants belch fumes that prevailing winds carry into this state.
Earlier this year the attorney general won a significant victory in the legal battle against TVA, the nation’s largest public power company. In January, a federal judge imposed strict deadlines for TVA to install $1 billion worth of pollution controls on four power plants that burn coal within 100 miles of North Carolina. The controls will trap emissions that form ozone, haze, acid rain and the fine particles that can ride a wind stream for hundreds of miles.
The state has spent more than $5 million on the legal fight against TVA, and now the Tennessee power company is seeking delays in meeting court-imposed deadlines while it is appealing the court’s January decision. With the TVA’s extension request pending before a federal court, Cooper is wary about the state legislature’s willingness to extend deadlines for Progress Energy.
Cooper’s spokeswoman, Noelle Talley, said the office would not comment on the bill in the General Assembly.
Carolina Journal has reported on a similar case where Cooper’s lawyers expressed concern that a report from the N.C. Division of Air Quality could have negatively impacted the TVA case (available on pg. 1 and 4 of this month’s issue — PDF download here).
