WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Guardians Appeals to Hold Xcel Accountable

Company Violated Clean Air Laws at Comanche Coal-fired Power Plant
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

Denver—WildEarth Guardians today filed a legal appeal to hold Xcel Energy accountable to clean air and public health over air quality violations at the company’s Comanche 3 coal-fired power plant in Pueblo, Colorado.  The appeal was filed in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of Guardians by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Environmental Law Clinic.

“Our position is straightforward—if you pollute, you should pay,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “In this case, Xcel violated the Clean Air Act, yet the District Court refused to hold the company accountable, setting a dangerous precedent that threatens to let polluters everywhere off the hook for jeopardizing our clean air.”

Xcel Energy, the largest utility in Colorado and the largest burner of coal in the state, constructed the 750 megawatt Comanche 3 coal-fired boiler and began operating the unit without meeting legally required limits on toxic air emissions under the Clean Air Act.  In 2009, Guardians filed suit in federal court against Xcel to prevent the construction of Comanche 3 and force the company to meet the legally required pollution limits.

On August 1, 2011, Colorado U.S. District Court Judge Walker Miller dismissed Guardians’ lawsuit, holding that Xcel Energy did not deserve to be punished at all for violating the Clean Air Act.

 “Judge Miller’s ruling basically said, ‘yeah, Xcel violated, but they had good intentions, so I’m not going to punish them,’” said Nichols.  “Well, all the good intentions in the world do not change the fact that Xcel knowingly violated the Clean Air Act, putting people and the environment at risk.  This appeal is about simple accountability to clean air.”

If successful, the appeal will open the door for Xcel to be assessed penalties and to commit to an environmental clean up project to remedy the past violations.

The Comanche 3 unit is Colorado’s newest coal-fired power plant and made Xcel Energy’s Comanche coal-fired power plant in Pueblo the largest in the state.  In 2010, the smokestacks of the Comanche power plant released more than 28,000 pounds of toxic air pollution into the air, including 125 pounds of mercury, 77 pounds of lead, and more than 6,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid.

The University of Denver, the oldest private university in the Rocky Mountain region, enrolls approximately 11,409 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs.  WildEarth Guardians is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the wildlife, wild places, and wild rivers of the American West.