Hundreds of old coal-fired power plants still haven't installed modern pollution controls. One plant, across the Potomac River from the White House, is so vital to the Washington, D.C. region's electricity supply that the federal government is bending pollution rules to keep it running.
The federal government sees the Mirant power station in Alexandria, Va., as an essential source of electricity for central Washington. Local politicians and residents see it as an especially potent health hazard. They say that, even though the plant was here first, it doesn't belong in a neighborhood that's now full of garden apartments, brick town houses and high-rise condominiums.
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