The Sierra Club is urging the federal government to deny an air permit for Magnolia Power’s proposed plant in Iberville Parish.
The plant, reportedly representing a $740 million investment, would be part of New Jersey-based Kindle Energy’s power generation portfolio and feature a 700-megawatt turbine capable of using 50% hydrogen as a fuel source, the company says.
The Sierra Club argues that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in granting a state permit didn’t properly assess the air pollution the facility would produce. The permit fails to include emissions limitations, monitoring, or reporting needed to enforce the permit and fails to analyze the impacts of air pollution on public health, particularly in minority communities, the group says.
DEQ did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Darryl Malek-Wiley, senior organizing representative for Sierra Club in Louisiana, cites last week’s district court ruling vacating state air permits for a multibillion-dollar Formosa Plastics complex in St. James Parish and argues that DEQ’s pollution program “only serves the interests of politically influential polluters, not the people it’s meant to protect.”
Magnolia Power in July paid $2.12 million for 112 acres on River Road in south Iberville Parish between Shintech and SNF Flopam at Pleasant Point for the plant.
