Article published Jul 24, 2007

Environmental lawsuit aims to block coal-fired plant funding

By RICHARD ECKE

Tribune Staff Writer

Conservation groups launched a pre-emptive strike against the Highwood Generating Station, suing a federal agency Monday to prevent it from lending the coal-fired project more than $600 million.

In a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., three groups cited the National Environmental Policy Act in asking a judge to prohibit the agency from approving the loan and disbursing the money.

Plaintiffs are the Helena-based Montana Environmental Information Center, Great Falls-based Citizens for Clean Energy, and the San Francisco-based Sierra Club.

The groups claimed federal officials failed to consider alternative sources of energy and alternative plant sites. They argued the power plant would increase global warming and would amount to "an enormously risky investment of federal taxpayer dollars."

"We've been hard hit by drought, and it's only going to get worse for farmers as global warming makes it hotter and drier," said Richard Liebert, a retired army colonel turned farmer-ranch who is chairman of Citizens for Clean Energy in Great Falls.

An arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Rural Utilities Service, issued a record of decision May 10 indicating it would lend the money to the Highwood plant, which would be located about eight miles east of Great Falls.

Defendants in the suit are U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns; James Andrew, administrator of the Rural Utilities Service; and Richard Fristik, senior environmental protection specialist for RUS.

The plant's developer is Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative, featuring five rural Montana co-ops and the City of Great Falls.

Kenneth A. Reich, an SME attorney in the Boston firm of WolfBlock, said officials had not yet been able to examine the lawsuit thoroughly Monday, although he rejected many of the plaintiff's main themes.

"We're confident that the EIS (environmental impact statement) and the Record of Decision were thoroughly reviewed and studied," Reich said.

The lawsuit also asks a federal judge to invalidate an RUS record of decision issued in May.

"We're confident that RUS' decision will be upheld," Reich said. "There's no basis to invalidate it."

One of the mandates of RUS is to fund new sources of electrical power, Reich noted.

In a news release, the conservation groups complained that RUS plans to invest in eight conventional coal plants across the country, although the groups sought an injection only against the Montana project.

Pat Gallagher, a senior Sierra Club attorney, said those new coal plants "will emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases every year." The lawsuit also noted the plant would be built next to a National Historic Landmark Lewis and Clark Expedition site.

"This is the kind of needlessly destructive project that makes you think there ought to be a law against it, and in fact there is," said Abigail Dillen, an Earthjustice attorney in Bozeman who represents the two Montana plaintiffs.

"The federal government is required to seek out options to protect air and water and historic resources, and RUS is not living up to that responsibility," she said.

Dillen called the proposed loan "a misguided investment in dirty coal plants."

Reich begged to differ about the Highwood station.

"It will be one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the country," Reich said. He said the federal agency and SME "thoroughly considered all of the alternatives" both on the energy side and in site selection.

Contentions that SME has no need for much of the power the plant would produce "sound like claims that have been made in the past" by opponents, Reich added. He said the five rural co-ops involved in SME "have tremendous current power needs" as well as heavy future power needs.

Supporters say the plant would create 75 high-paying permanent jobs, and 600 temporary construction jobs. Area union labor members will get first crack at the construction work.

Backers also say the plant would boost the Cascade County tax base and make Great Falls an energy center for the region.

Tim Gregori, general manager of SME in Billings, was out of the office and could not be reached for comment Monday.