The Southern Environmental Law Center has filed a lawsuit on behalf of six Fluvanna County residents to challenge the move by the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors to approve the request of a Nebraska-based energy company to build a new, 1,540-megawatt gas-fired power plant next to its existing gas plant in the western part of the county.
The Board of Supervisors approved a special use permit for the new Tenaska plant in a 4-1 vote in March.
The lawsuit alleges that the Board:
- Based its decision to approve the new power plant in great part on unlawful and unenforceable promises of cash and other sweeteners from the developer
- Failed to follow its own zoning ordinance requirements for the approval of new power plants, including that a proposed plant shall not be detrimental to or change the character of the surrounding area
- Violated fundamental procedural requirements relating to advertising and holding a public hearing, depriving the public of its right to meaningfully engage on certain aspects of the project proposal.
“The Board’s unlawful reliance on illegal and unenforceable commitments from the developer in deciding to approve this permit puts Fluvanna residents at risk that those promises won’t actually be realized, all while they are left to breathe in even more dangerous air pollution,” SELC attorney Christina Libre said. “It also opens the door to similarly unlawful commitments being used to induce local approvals all across the Commonwealth.
“The Board’s short-sighted approval risks setting a damaging precedent as more and more communities in Virginia are being targeted for massive new developments, like data centers and the harmful gas plants being built to power them,” Libre said.
Chris Whitmore, a Fluvanna resident who lives near both the existing Tenaska gas plant and the site of the proposed new plant, is one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
“Nothing is more important to us than making sure our kids have a healthy and safe place to grow up, and I know other Fluvanna families feel the same way,” Whitmore said. “We rely on our elected officials to make smart decisions when major development proposals come to town, and that requires following the law. But that’s not what happened here. Doubling down on industrial pollution with a new gas plant is reckless and unjust.”
Another plaintiff, Julie Noggle, is struggling with what it will mean to have a second gas plant located so close to her home.
“We’ve lived in our home together for 45 years and already went through one round of heavy construction traffic rumbling by our house every day, only to be followed by the loud noises and air pollution from Tenaska’s first gas plant. I just don’t know how my husband and I could tolerate all of the additional impacts of a new and even larger plant,” Noggle said.
The latest filing in the lawsuit is available here.
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Chris Graham
