Coal Plants Under AttackIn Growing Number of States Across U.S.

From Michigan, to Montana, to Georgia, a growing number of governors and legislators are cooling to the idea of allowing more coal-fired power plants to be built in their states and are pushing plans to increase reliance on alternative energy, The Wall Street Journal reports. In Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in her State of the State address that she plans to toughen the permitting process for new coal plants, including four under consideration now, and to require regulators to determine whether alternative sources of energy would better serve the state. In Georgia, legislators introduced a bill to place a moratorium on new coal plant construction and to ban the use of coal obtained through mountaintop removal mining by 2016. In Kansas, legislators, supported by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, have introduced legislation requiring utilities to obtain 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020; plans to build two new coal plants remain stalled because of opposition from Sebelius and some legislators. And in Nevada and Montana, construction of coal-fired plants are either being delayed or are in doubt because of growing opposition.