Monday night, in a 17-1 vote overseen by Mayor Bill Finch, the Bridgeport City Council approved a resolution calling for a responsible and managed retirement of the Bridgeport Harbor Station coal plant.

“This is a huge step toward healthier air and cleaner water in Bridgeport,” said Onté Johnson, Bridgeport organizing representative of the Sierra Club.

BRIDGEPORT — The Sierra Club, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and the Conservation Law Foundation have jointly filed a lawsuit in federal court that ultimately seeks a shutdown of the coal-fired Bridgeport Harbor Station in the city’s South End. “We’re seeking the full range of remedies available under the Clean Air Act,” said Charles

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Connecticut’s last coal-fired power plant will still be belching the occasional smoke cloud along the city’s harbor front.

It was an anti-climatic denouement to a months-long effort by opponents who unrealistically hoped for a rejection to force PSEG to retire what they consider a pollution-spewing relic.

The Bridgeport Harbor Station in southwest Connecticut, which is less than a mile from six schools and a university,1 is the last remaining coal plant in the state. And as of last week, the plant’s operating permit has expired, giving us a great opportunity to shut this half-century old polluter down once and for all.

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