Power Plants

Inaction is action when it comes to climate change.

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson drove that point home yesterday when she announced she would review a Bush-era memo stating that carbon dioxide is not a "regulated pollutant" under the Clean Air Act.

Within hours, Jackson’s “hold on, let’s think about this” announcement was reverberating through the energy industry.

AES Corporation, one of the world’s largest power companies with almost $14 billion in revenues in 2007, announced it would withdraw an application to build a new coal-fired power plant in Oklahoma. The company, which would not comment beyond its three-sentence announcement because it is in a quiet period before announcing quarterly earnings, said the decision to withdraw plans for the 600MW plant was “part of our broader strategy to re-evaluate our growth plans.”

The EPA review effectively put a moratorium on all coal-fired plant projects, says David Bookbinder, Chief Climate Counsel for the Sierra Club, which asked the EPA to reconsider the Dec. 18, 2008, memo from ex-agency Administrator Stephen Johnson.

Proposed coal plants on federal land, such as the Bonanza Plant in Utah and the White Pine and Tuquop plants in Nevada, are already on hold. In Florida, a Seminole Electric plant in Palatka under litigation could have its permit revoked if the EPA decides to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.