The Montana Environmental Information Center is suing the state agency responsible for permitting power plants. It challenges the way the state issued the permit for NorthWestern Energy’s Yellowstone County Generating Station.
MEIC originally filed suit over permits issued by Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality for the 175 megawatt gas-fired plant. A court ordered the agency to redo its assessment of the plant's environmental impacts. The analysis was published last month.
Anne Hedges, MEIC’s executive director, argues the new analysis still fails to meet the Supreme Court’s ruling.
"DEQ failed to disclose that this is a plant that is going to release 25 million million tons of greenhouse gasses over the plant's life. Instead, DEQ looked at it like it was only one year's worth of emissions, and said they're not a big deal," Hedges says.
The case was filed by MEIC and the Western Environmental Law Center in Yellowstone County District Court.
