In Re Otter Tail Power Co. Ex Rel. Big Stone II

KONENKAMP, Justice.

[¶ 1.] Otter Tail Power Company, on behalf of several utilities, applied for a permit to construct Big Stone II, a coal-fired energy conversion facility. Certain non-profit environmental organizations intervened to oppose the application. They asserted that the carbon dioxide (C02) emissions from Big Stone II would contribute to global warming, thereby posing a threat of serious environmental injury. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) concluded that although the facility will emit C02, the amount will not pose a threat of serious injury to the environment.…