The Case Against Alabama Power

If Alabama Power’s Barry Steam Plant in Mobile County, Alabama, the largest single source of major air pollutants in the county, installed modern pollution controls, it would eliminate 75 to 90 percent of its major emissions and reduce the region’s ozone pollution, fine particle pollution and acid rain, vastly improving public health.

However, Alabama Power has refused to do so. Instead, the utility company has invested tens of millions of dollars to extend the lives of its coal-burning power plants, increasing air pollution by hundreds of tons each year. The Barry Steam Plant alone emits 61,000 tons of SO2, 24,000 tons of ozone- forming nitrogen oxides and 11 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Now, following a unanimous ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court, Alabama Power may finally be forced to follow the law and clean up its outdated power plant.

What the Law Requires

Under amendments to the Clean Air Act, many old coal-fired plants were exempt from requirements to install modern pollution controls. Instead, these plants, including Alabama Power, were to make the improvements only when making other modifications that resulted in increased emissions.

Alabama Power exploited this “grandfathered” status, and in 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency filed suit against the company. At issue were illegal modifications made to five of its coal-fired power plants, emitting millions of tons of pollution in the process.

SELC, on behalf of the Alabama Environmental Council, joined forces with EPA to force Alabama Power to follow the law and to close the loophole of grandfathered power plants.

Unfortunately, in June 2005 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled in favor of Alabama Power largely based on what the court felt were "inconsistent positions EPA has taken on core application of the NSR Rules." 

While the case against Alabama Power was awaiting appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a core Clean Air Act program designed to clean up the nation’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants, the single largest source of harmful soot and smog. The Supreme Court ruling in a case against Duke Energy and brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center, could force Alabama Power and other utilities around the nation to dramatically cut emissions from their outdated coal-fired power plants.