Officials from southwest China’s Yunnan province have defended a plan to build a dam in the region as “fully legally compliant”, after an environment group took developers of the project to court ...for violating laws.  The Beijing-based Friends of Nature had filed a suit against the 113-megawatt Huilong Mountain hydropower plant on the Mekong river...saying it would destroy rain forest and encroach upon nature reserves...But Xishuangbanna Governor Luo Hongjiang said...“[v]arious laws related to the development and utilisation of hydropower, environmental protection, fish habitats in the Lancang (Mekong) river basin, management of nature reserves and so on have been strictly implemented”...China Resources Power, the developer leading the project, did not respond to questions about the project...[P]rojects in the region...have been responsible for flooding fragile ecosystems, displacing millions and worsening earthquake risks.  The Mekong and the Salween rivers also flow into Myanmar and Thailand, raising concerns about downstream water disruptions.  Grid deficiencies and weak local demand have also meant that Yunnan’s existing plants run at less than optimal levels...Friends of Nature’s Zhang said local authorities were underestimating the costs of hydro and exaggerating benefits...