Judges Recommend No Permit For Oak Grove Coal Plant

Phillip over at Burnt Orange Report has the scoop (in the first of a three-part series) about a ruling by two administrative judges who have recommended that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality deny a permit to one of 17 of TXU’s newly proposed coal power plants.

Although the final fate of the plant (read more here and here) rests in the hands of the TCEQ, the judges’ recommendation is expected to carry a great deal of weight.

While the Dallas Morning News did use the phrase “environmentalists” in its coverage (a word that, for some reason, still seems to turn a lot of Texans sour), the fact is that it is pure grassroots efforts from ordinary citizens that has has the noose around TXU’s neck.

Our Land, Our Lives, the Robertson County group that gets a lot of the credit for stopping the plant, is so grassrootsy I can’t even find a website for it.

Even local citizens in the area recognized that the people opposed to the plant weren’t what most conservatives think of as “tree hugging environmentalists,” but rather ordinary folks with the right facts. From a letter to the editor of the Bryan-College Station Eagle:

When we first heard about Our Land, Our Lives, the group opposing TXU’s Oak Grove plant near Franklin, we were skeptical. Were the members a bunch of tree huggers opposed to any industry? Were the claims they were making about pollution accurate? If we demanded that TXU build the plant cleaner, would it move somewhere else, taking good jobs and economic growth with it?

After studying the issue, we’ve come to understand that Our Land, Our Lives has got it right.

[...]
Those of us who live in Robertson County place a high value on our clean air and clean water. We love our country living. We want our children and grandchildren to grow up healthy, swimming and fishing in the lakes, running in the wildflowers. But if we allow the land and the water to be ruined by mercury, how will we ever reclaim it?

Are we willing to just sit on the fence and let that happen? Democracy is a messy business. It demands that we roll up our sleeves and get in the fight. Some of our young people are doing that in Iraq and Afghanistan. The least we can do is to make sure Robertson County remains the beautiful place they left.

The writer of the above letter also touched on the cozy relationship between TXU and Texas Governor Rick Perry, which Tom “Smitty” Smith, the head of Public Citizen, touches on in a guest column in the Waco Tribune-Herald (which is so damned good I’ve quoted most of it):

Last October, Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order that did two things:

It kept your electric bills artificially high.

It fast-tracked the permitting of new coal plants.

Last fall, after Hurricane Katrina hit, TXU and Deidre Delisi, the governor’s chief of staff, cut a deal. TXU had the right under Texas law to more than double electric bills because the price of natural gas nearly doubled in the weeks after the hurricane from about $8 to $15.50 per thousand cubic feet (MCF).

The huge rate increase would have been bad news during the primary election, so the governor and the utility made a pact.

If Perry issued an executive order that assured TXU could continue to charge for electricity based on the highest price of natural gas and expedite the permitting of new coal plants, TXU would postpone the second half of the increase until after the primary.

The price of natural gas has dropped by more than half to below $6 per MCF since last fall, but your bills haven’t. Why?

Perry kept his promise to TXU not to change the way electric prices are set. As a result, you are paying more for electricity than ever before, and TXU is making record profits.

More than half of the electricity that TXU sells comes from lower-cost ways of generating electricity, such as wind, coal and nuclear power.

The PUC’s rules allow electric companies to raise their prices if the cost of natural gas goes up. But they don’t require the companies to reduce their prices when the costs come down.

Consumer advocates filed a petition to change the rules that govern the way fuel prices are set, but the petition was denied by PUC commissioners appointed by Perry.

While you are paying more for electricity, TXU is pocketing record profits.

Last quarter its earnings were up by 31 percent over last year, the most profitable year in the company’s history.

It’s not just high bills that should make you choke with anger. Your future health may be a victim — sacrificed for Perry’s political gain.

The 17 new power plants being proposed for Texas will emit more smog-forming pollution than 1 million cars, more global heating pollution than 20 million cars and over 4,000 pounds of brain-damaging mercury.

Adding 117 million tons of global heating gasses to our overheated skies is every Texas electric company’s dream of a business plan.

The hotter is gets, the more electricity you buy and the higher their profits go.

Not sure you believe the globe is overheating yet? Recent headlines screamed, “Texas drought worst in history.” “Number of 100 degree days may set record,” as have 10 of the last 11 years.

Why the big rush to permit these plants?

TXU and other companies are trying to get their power plants permitted before the state can develop a plan to assure the air is safe to breathe in the DFW area.

Before decisions are made by the courts on whether power companies should be required to look at far newer types of power plants that can generate power with 60 percent to 90 percent less pollution and before global heating emissions are capped.

Rick Perry cut a secret deal with a major utility company to screw Texas consumers. He should be run out on a rail, not re-elected. Sneaking plants in before new rules, keeping electricity prices artificially inflated: these are astounding examples of corruption. Rick Perry is in collusion with the biggest utility company in Texas, and it must stop.

The majority of the rest of these proposed coal plants are in rural areas as well: Fannin County, Calhoun County, Titus County, Rusk County, Mitchell County.

Counties like Fannin, Titus and Rusk are in East Texas, which is generally considered to have much better air than its counterparts to the west in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Kaufman Counties.

Building coal power plants around East Texas will worsen the air quality in the entire region from Paris and Sulphur Springs to Tyler and Longview to the Louisiana Border. I’m not sure if any of these counties have groups in place to put a halt to the coal powered plants, but if they don’t and you live in one of those counties, check out this site and start one of your own.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Bookmark It