Judge calls Sierra Club air pollution suit “frivolous”
A federal judge in Waco has ruled a Sierra Club lawsuit against power generator Luminant was “frivolous” and ordered the group to repay $6.4 million in attorneys’ fees.
The ruling Friday comes two years after the Sierra Club alleged Luminant had broken federal air pollution laws by emitting more soot and other particulates into the atmosphere than what permits at one of their power plants allowed.
In February Judge Walter S. Smith. Jr. ruled that the Big Brown power plant in Fairfield had stayed within the limits of its permit. Luminant, a subsidiary of bankrupt Energy Future Holdings, then filed a motion requesting $6.8 million for the cost of its attorneys and expert witnesses during the trial.
The Sierra Club plans to appeal the ruling.
“Luminant’s own reports indicated that its plants were emitting pollution that exceeded Clean Air Act limits. We presented substantial amounts of evidence at trial showing that this pollution could have been prevented by the company, and brought this case in the interest of safeguarding downwind communities. We are confident the court of appeals will reverse this decision,” Al Armendariz, a former regional administrator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who now heads the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Texas, said in a prepared statement.
The environmental group has been targeting Luminant’s East Texas coal plants for closure through the courts and public relations campaigns. Big Brown burns a lignite-type coal and is routinely ranked by government regulators as one of the state’s most polluting power plants.
Last year Big Brown emitted more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than all but one other Texas power plant, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Luminant announced Friday it would close Big Brown’s adjacent coal mine by 2018, citing cheaper costs in transporting coal from Montana and Wyoming.
Smith was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.