The Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES), Citizens for Public Justice, and three citizens of Saskatchewan and Manitoba have launched a legal challenge against the Government of Saskatchewan over its announcement it will keep conventional coal fired plants operating.

Representatives for SES are in Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon Tuesday seeking a judicial review of the Saskatchewan government’s decision. Their overreaching goal it to have the federally mandated shutdown of all conventional coal fired power stations by 2030, enforced.

A news release from the SES says that every other province is complying with that deadline and the group stresses that the case is not against SaskPower. They note that over two years of public consultations none of the electricity generation scenarios put forward by SaskPower included the continued operation of coal-fired power stations beyond 2030. SES says the decision lies with Premier Scott Moe’s government.

On June 18th, Crown Investments Corporation Minister Jeremy Harrison announced the government was is planning to extend the life of the province’s coal plants. The decision was shared via a letter distributed to all SaskPower employees but it was not announced publicly. The government has said it will operate coal plants as it moves towards adopting nuclear power.