Robert H. Owen Jr., a wind-energy consultant, is asking a Dane County judge to hold the state Public Service Commission in contempt for not conducting an in-depth environmental review of the impact of the natural gas-fired plants.

The utility should be held in contempt, he added, because construction continued since Judge Moria Krueger's Jan. 27 decision, he said.

Last month, the commission approved an environmental review that agency officials hoped would satisfy concerns raised by Krueger when she vacated the commission's December 2002 vote for the project.

In a separate letter, Owen said the utility and the commission "are thumbing their noses" at the court's January order.

"Mr. Owen indicated that he would challenge the commission's second order, and that's what he has done," said Wisconsin Energy spokeswoman Beth Martin. The project is 23 percent complete, she said.

The commission is confident that it "complied fully" with the judge's decision, said Robert Mussallem, deputy general counsel.

The $640 million project calls for the utility to build two 545- megawatt natural gas plants on the site of an aging coal-fired plant.

Owen said he challenged the approval because of the amount of carbon dioxide the new plant would release. Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming.

In her ruling, Krueger agreed with Owen that the commission's initial review of the plant was inadequate. The commission evaluated the environmental impact of the natural gas plants against the impact of the Port Washington coal plants the utility planned to shutter.

The commission should have compared the effects on the environment of the two gas plants and other means of generating power, she said.

The first plant is scheduled to open in 2005 and the second is planned for 2008.

Owen contends that while the natural gas plant would generate less carbon dioxide than the coal-fired units that stood on the Port Washington site since 1936, they still generate a considerable amount -- far more than many of the natural gas plants already built in Wisconsin.

The use of steam turbines rather than combustion turbines increases the amount of emissions significantly, he said.

In his new court filing, Owen said the commission failed in its environmental analysis to compare the natural gas-fired plant that includes steam turbines with an alternative plan that would include natural gas combustion turbines and increased use of both wind power and energy efficiency.

Supporters of the Port Washington project have warned that any delay opening the Port Washington plants may affect Wisconsin's electricity reliability, given that demand for has been increasing at a rate of at least 2 percent a year.