Why Environmentalists Arent Winning the War with Natural Gas

Despite a recent victory, environmental groups have had little luck slowing the boom in new natural-gas power plants.

Environmental groups won a major victory in California in late June when the group proposing a 600-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant near Avenal said it would abandon the project. Slated to cost nearly $2 billion, the Avenal plant was the subject of a dozen years of controversy and legal wrangling, and last year a federal appeals court vacated environmental approvals for the project.