Oct. 2--When Portland General Electric built its Boardman coal plant in the 1970s, regulators allowed the company to avoid new laws that required tougher pollution controls at the electricity plant.

Nearly 35 years later, a U.S. district court judge has ruled that he has the authority to review whether that was the right call or not, which could mean tens of millions in extra costs for Oregon's largest electric utility.

The Sierra Club and other environmental groups are suing PGE, alleging that the utility has improperly evaded pollution controls at Boardman required under the Clean Air Act.

Among other requests, PGE had asked U.S. District Court Judge Ancer L. Haggerty to toss out claims tied to the plant's original construction, saying the court didn't have the authority to overturn the EPA's decision.

The EPA concluded in 1975 that PGE had already begun construction of the coal plant, meaning it was exempt from air pollution rules adopted a year earlier.

But Haggerty disagreed in a decision issued Wednesday. His ruling allows the suit to proceed on that front.

"Regardless of whether EPA believes, or believed, that PGE had commenced construction in 1975 does not preclude this court from determining whether PGE in fact had commenced construction," the judge wrote.

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