Earlier this week a Georgia state court invalidated a permit to build a large coal power plant near Blakley due to what they say was a failure on the part of developers to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

There is an energy debate going on in this part of the country that precedes 4 dollar gasoline....even three dollar gasoline, since 2001 environmentalists have wanted to keep a 12 hundred megawatt coal burning power plant from coming to the river region.
"this plant emits 9 to ten Million tons of carbon dioxide, and it can contribute enormously to global warming” Says environmentalist Bobby Mclendon, but it's not only the environment he's worried about, it's peoples health
"what that coal plant does, it sends out pollutants that get in their lungs, and in some people it increases their asthmatic attacks it increases emphysema, it's just a bad pollutant."
Plant supporters like Early County Development chair Olin Thompson say the impact of the facility that would employ more than 100 people could be vital to Blakely and the business community.
"1200 jobs during the peak of construction and 150 permanent jobs...permanent jobs on a level with Farley nuclear plant over there."
According to the project manager of the plant, if the air permit was upheld, construction might have already started.