KENTUCKY AG RAISES THREAT OF LAWSUIT OVER PADUCAH CLEANUP

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway late last week raised the threat of a possible lawsuit if delays are incurred in the cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. “General Conway believes that if the cleanup deadlines are not completed within the outlined timeframes, the federal government would be violating its legal agreement with the Commonwealth [of Kentucky],” says a statement Conway’s office released Aug. 2. That day, Conway met with members of the Community Task Force in Paducah to brief them on a recent meeting with Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman and DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga, according to the statement. “I expressed my concerns to senior Energy Department officials that Kentucky is tired of bearing the brunt of costs associated with new environmental policies curbing the use of coal, and now when it is the federal government’s responsibility to clean up an environmental mess here in the Commonwealth, this administration must not turn its back on the environment and the people of Kentucky. That’s unacceptable, and I won’t stand idly by and let that happen," Conway said in the statement.