COLUMBUS — Yesterday the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission ruled the de novo hearing regarding an appeal of the American Municipal Power Generation Station’s air permit set for August has been “indefinitely postponed,” according to Shannon Fisk, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Fisk said the commission issued the order because the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has not finished the Maximum Achievable Control Technology modifications required for the air permit. A hearing on these MACT modifications to AMP’s air permit was held in June because one of the rules relied upon in the original permit is no longer applicable on a federal level.

The original air permit-to-install relied upon the Clean Air Mercury Rule later vacated by the government in favor of MACT requirements related to the emissions of Hazardous Air Pollutants. MACT is meant to establish emission limits for the AMP power plant; limits which are designed to ensure compliance with federal and state clean air standards to protect public health.

Fisk said the NRDC was told after the MACT modifications and analysis are finished and reviewed, the parties will then meet to reschedule the hearing with the commission which told Fisk it would try to work “expeditiously” to place the hearing back on its docket. Kent Carson, communications director for American Municipal Power, took issue with the phrase “indefinitely postponed,” saying ERAC obviously indicates the hearing will eventually take place by use of the word “expeditiously.”

“We are pleased that Ohio EPA is going to be modifying the permit in order to include MACT limits for hazardous air pollutants,” Fisk added. “We’re also pleased the commission will give us time to fully evaluate whatever Ohio EPA does and determine whether or not it lives up to the latest requirements.”

Carson said the Ohio EPA and AMP voluntarily started the process concerning the inclusion of MACT analysis. Carson also said in addition to the hearing being postponed, ERAC also granted a summary judgment yesterday basically agreeing with AMP, and disagreeing with opponents, that carbon dioxide should not be considered as part of Best Available Control Technology standards in the air permit.

In the original appeal, opponents said the air permit-to-install unreasonably and unlawfully does not include a BACT limit for carbon dioxide emissions.

The NRDC, Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association located in Knoxville, Tenn. are appealing AMP’s air permit issued by the Ohio EPA in February 2008.