TXU Gets OK For Central Texas Plant

Amid all of the uproar over merger talks, TXU has received permission to move forward with one of the three new coal plants the company plans to build after scrapping the other eight:

A federal judge in Austin approved a settlement Wednesday among TXU, the Justice Department and Alcoa Inc. that allows TXU to build the Sandow power plant in Milam County, about 50 miles south of Waco. The Sandow plant will replace three older coal-fired units used to power Alcoa’s aluminum smelter in Rockdale and will be much cleaner.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks comes days after two private equity firms working to buy TXU announced that they’ll scrap plans to build eight of the 11 power plants. They also agreed to commit to other clean-air initiatives that drew raves from many environmentalists, elected leaders and citizens groups fiercely opposed to the plants.

But the Sandow plant and two plants at TXU’s Oak Grove complex in Robertson County were not included in that agreement. Robertson County borders Milam County to the east.

The three plants mentioned above are part of the original 11 planned plants. Eight have been scrapped, three are still supposed to be built.

Even so, the proposed plants will still cause pollution problems in spite of the scrapping of the remaining eight:

The judge’s decision disappointed the environmentalists who had sued Alcoa. They have vowed to continue opposing the Sandow and Oak Grove plants, the biggest polluters of the 11 proposed power plants. Studies have shown that pollution from the three plants would degrade air quality in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Jim Marston, the regional director of Environmental Defense, said he had an informal deal with the firms buying TXU to settle the Sandow lawsuit in a way that would result in the plant emitting much less sulfur dioxide. Environmental Defense was one of the groups that sued Alcoa in 2003.

Marston and representatives with the Natural Resources Defense Council negotiated the deal that resulted in the firms deciding to scrap eight of the 11 plants.

But that was not a part of the finalized agreement between the equity firms and the two environmental organizations.

Marston said they have not decided whether to appeal the judge’s ruling.

This could be interesting, as an appeal of this ruling could tie the plant’s construction up for three or four years.

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