ATLANTA — POWER4Georgians announced last week that Administrative Law Judge Ronit Walker granted its request to remand two issues related to certain emissions levels contained in the Plant Washington permit back to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and POWER4Georgians for modification.

The judge’s ruling does not require POWER4Georgians to re-do the entire permit application. Instead, it must address the two specific points related to PM-filterable and carbon monoxide emissions, which the judge said in her ruling require more extensive data and analysis than was contained in Plant Washington’s permit.

"There are more than 100 different conditions in this permit, and of those, only two required further analysis, which speaks to the thoroughness of our application," said Dean Alford, spokesman for POWER4Georgians. "We know what needs to be done to address Judge Walker’s concerns, and we look forward to addressing her concerns as soon as possible."

The delay resulting from this action is negligible and the Plant Washington project is moving forward on schedule, according to the spokesman.

"The opponents who appealed the permit have been focused on trying to prevent Plant Washington, yet they have no plans for how Georgia’s energy needs are going to be met in the years to come," he said. "They have been repeatedly encouraged to come up with a viable plan to provide affordable and reliable electric service for the average Georgia citizen and have yet to do so. At the same time they don’t seem to be willing to unplug their cell phones, their computers, their air conditioners, their refrigerators or big-screen TVs."

Plant Washington will feature technologically advanced emissions controls that allegedly are superior to coal-fired power plant in Georgia. Company officials say the plant’s overall emissions profile will be among the lowest that has ever been proposed for a coal-fired power generation facility anywhere in the United States.

When construction begins, the plant is expected to take approximately four years to build and will create up to 1,600 construction and skilled trade jobs, Alford said. When complete, Plant Washington is expected to create between 120 and 130 new jobs onsite, as well as an additional 200 to 300 new secondary jobs in supporting businesses and industries in and around Washington County.