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Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

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The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

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Wyoming needs more educators who can teach kids trade skills, a proposal to open 40-thousand acres of an Ohio forest to fracking has environmental advocates alarmed and rural communities lure bicyclists with state-of-the-art bike trail systems.

Rethinking Kalama Coal Plant: A Waste of Money?

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Monday, December 3, 2007   

Seattle, WA – This week, it's back to the drawing board for Energy Northwest -- or is it? The company's new coal-fired power plant for Kalama, Washington, was stopped last week with a unanimous decision by the state's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Committee. EFSEC said the plan didn't come close to meeting the state standards for containing global warming pollution.

Conservation groups say the plan has already cost public utility customers of Energy Northwest $4,700 a day. Aaron Robins, energy committee chair for the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club, says there are other, better uses for that money.

"They could do so much better to just look forward 20 and 30 years, at where we're going to be when we need to be emitting half as much, or 80 percent less, carbon than we're emitting today."

Robins explains that would mean cutting out coal as an option, and focusing instead on conservation and energy efficiency, which could eliminate the need for a new plant altogether. The case was the first test of ESSB 6001, the climate change mitigation law passed by the 2007 Washington Legislature. Robins says no matter what type of plan the company comes up with next, it will be under the same intense scrutiny.

"The public knows what they're doing, the regulators know what they're doing, the Legislature knows what they're doing –- everybody's watching them."

Energy Northwest serves electric utilities in at least 16 Washington counties and cities. Washington is one of several states that have said 'no' to new coal plants this year.




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