By Stacy Shelton, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/16/07

The state Environmental Protection Division gave the go-ahead this week for a new coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia. It would be the state's 11th, and the only one built by an out-of-state energy company.

While state environmental groups are lined up to oppose the Longleaf plant, locals rolled out the red carpet years ago. They're excited about the plant and its attached benefits: a $2 billion construction project, more than 100 high-paying jobs and millions in tax revenues.

"I've been riding around with a shovel in the back of my truck waiting on the groundbreaking. That's how excited I am," said Richard Ward III, chairman of the Early County Commission and president of a local bank branch in the town of Arlington. "We don't have a whole lot down here. ... We're in the other Georgia, because there's two Georgias."

Early is the state's sixth poorest county, with nearly one-quarter of its 12,000 residents living in poverty. Much of the land is now filled with cotton and peanut farms.

On Monday, the state EPD issued all the necessary permits for the proposed plant, which would be built on the Chattahoochee River about 50 miles upstream from Florida.

LS Power Associates, a private energy company based in New Jersey, started working on the plans for the plant in 2001. At a proposed capacity of 1,200 megawatts, the plant would power more than a half-million homes. In March, LS Power combined with Dynegy Inc., a publicly traded energy company based in Houston. The proposed plant remains a priority, a Dynegy spokesman said. With permits in hand, the companies' next step is to line up buyers for the electricity: utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

But no matter what the appetite, delays are nearly certain.

Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest [now GreenLaw], the litigation team for environmental causes, is likely to appeal the permits within the 30-day time limit. That will push the start of the five-year construction project back until at least November.

Justine Thompson, executive director for the center, said the plant will spew pollution in Georgia while exporting the electricity out of state and contribute to global warming.

"Why are we going in this direction when we don't even need this power?" Thompson said. "We know the problems with coal-fired power plants are serious in terms of public health," including premature deaths and asthma attacks.

Thompson said the state EPD should have required cutting-edge technology to reduce the plant's emissions.

In a written statement, EPD Assistant Director Jim Ussery said the permit requirements are "protective of human health and the environment. The stringent conditions imposed by the EPD permits will insure that the Longleaf facility has state-of-the-art pollution controls and is one of the cleanest facilities of its type and size in the United States."

EARLY COUNTY

Population: 11,989

50 percent black; 48 percent white

Median home value: $63,251

Median household income in Early County: $26,234

Median household income in Georgia: $42,421

Source: Ceritas Group and U.S. Census Bureau