We Energies, a utility serving Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is facing legal challenges on numerous fronts to its proposed "Power the Future" project, a $2.15 billion proposal to develop Wisconsin's first coal power plant to be built in decades. We Energies is battling state agencies over air and water permits, as a docket of lawsuits have been filed attempting to overturn the permits and derail the project. The company's battles have attracted nationwide attention and have implications for the development of similar coal-fired projects in other states. In 2004, Wisconsin state...

The Golden State is currently considering a bill (AB 1365) that will set greenhouse gas ("GHG") emission reduction targets of seven percent by 2010 and ten percent by 2020, in relation to the state's 1990 GHG emission levels. The Assembly Natural Resources Committee passed the bill on April 25, in the face of public opposition by industry groups. These groups expressed concerns over emissions targets and indicated their preference for a more wide-ranging effort on the part of the state's EPA to pursue GHG emission reduction standards. The industry groups primarily opposed the deadlines, which...