Texas only State in Nation with such a Deadly, Costly Coal Rush Advancing
(Austin) Attorneys for Sierra Club and a Goliad and Victoria county-based group, Citizens for a Clean Environment, plus Environmental Defense Fund began arguments today against one of a large number of proposed new coal plants that are in various stages of the permitting, appeal, or construction process in Texas.
“Nowhere else in the United States are citizens facing such serious public health and financial risks as we are facing in Texas because of the large number of proposed new coal plants,” said Eva Hernandez with Sierra Club.
“Texas is also the only state in the nation where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to reject the state agency’s air permitting regime. We are asking the EPA to take action and place a moratorium on new coal plant permits until the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) follows the law of the Clean Air Act.”
The Sierra Club is challenging five coal plant permit applications this Fall and Winter in Texas:
• NRG Limestone near Jewett east of Waco
• IPA Coleto Creek between Goliad and Victoria
• Tenaska in Sweetwater west of Abilene
• Las Brisas in Corpus Christi
• White Stallion near Bay City south of Houston
Today, attorneys for the Goliad and Victoria Counties-based Citizens for a Clean Environment, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund are protesting the coal plant permit application of IPA Coleto Creek at the State Office of Administrative Hearings in Austin. The company is asking the TCEQ for a permit to expand an existing coal plant by a second unit. This week’s contested case hearing will consider proposed air emissions, while Sierra Club and the Citizens for a Clean Environment also have concerns about water usage and water quality.
“The existing coal plant at Coleto Creek has been dumping pollution and toxins on local residents for years, harming their health and property, using huge amounts of water. The Citizens for a Clean Economy are now rightly standing up to ensure that this destruction and injustice does not continue,” said Ryan Rittenhouse with Public Citizen Texas. “If this expansion is allowed, the environmental damage, health impacts, and lowered property values in the community will increase significantly. TCEQ can’t let that happen.”
Background Information
At a preliminary hearing in Sweetwater, Texas tomorrow, Sierra Club and the Multi-County Coalition a citizens group from Nolan and surrounding counties will request standing to challenge the Tenaska coal permit application.
Other upcoming hearings in what environmentalists consider the ‘second wave’ of the Texas coal rush are: Las Brisas coke plant contested case hearing, November 2 in Corpus Christi; NRG Limestone, TCEQ Commissioners Hearing and decision in Austin, November 18.
The Las Brisas contested case hearing on November 2nd is expected to be heavily attended due to extensive opposition to the permit from the Coastal Bend area Clean Economy Coalition, Sierra Club, and Public Citizen. The proposed urban coke plant would emit more air pollution than all of the existing gas refineries in Corpus Christi.
The TCEQ Commissioners decision on NRG Limestone on November 18th could signal the start of construction of this proposed coal plant in a region surrounding Waco with two new coal plants already under construction – Sandy Creek in Riesel and Oak Grove in Franklin.
![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
I currently work at the plant in riesel. This job is a clean coal plant and employs over a thousand people and is stimulating a community that was battling the current ressession. Me and others plan to go to work at these plants u r protesting.I’m assuming you all believe n man made global warming oh I’m sorry now that we have record cold temps u call It climate change. We r the men and wemen who build the finiancial backbone of this country. If u don’t mind instead of trying to destroy lives and jobs tell me ur suggestions for replacing the jobs u seek to dismantle. And explain to me ur science that justifies ur cause
Response to oneal:
First of all, there is no such thing as clean coal. You’d be better off looking for fairy dust to provide you with electricity than something called “clean coal.” Even putting aside all the toxic pollution from mining, transporting, and disposing of the coal ash waste, the Sandy Creek plant is “permitted” to emit the following pollutants by TCEQ:
7.5 million tons per year (tpy) of CO2
3,585 tpy of SO2 (acid rain, respiratory irritant)
1,793 tpy NOx (forms smog, respiratory irritant)
1,490 tpy Particulate Matter (microscopic soot)
150 lbs a year of the deadly neurotoxin mercury (there are already fishing advisories in most of Texas’s lakes and reservoirs due to mercury contamination, as well as the entire Gulf Coast.)
And thousands of tons of other toxic pollutants such as CO, Volatile Organic Compounds, and heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium… the list goes on.
Most of the “permanent” jobs at the plant will not go to your or your friends who are currently working on constructing the plant. The “economic incentives” this plant will supposedly bring to your area will be more than offset by the damage it does to public health and the ecosystem. Much like an economic “bubble,” large construction projects like this also are accompanied by “bubbles” which burst once the construction phase is complete. The tax breaks and incentives they receive will further offset any possible positive impact on your area or economy. There are already many coal plants throughout your region, as well as other industrial facilities. Have they made your region affluent? Even in the slightest? No: areas of the state/country that are affluent don’t have facilities like coal plants because the people living there figured out long ago that such things are not good for your community. There is a reason why coal plants are typically located in rural, sparsely populated regions with slow or slowing economies.
There is no reason why you and your buddies can’t build wind farms, or work on energy efficiency upgrades to people’s homes and businesses. You could work in a factory that makes solar cells, or do any one of a thousand different jobs other than build a coal plant. Just because a job is offered or a project is suggested does not automatically justify its existence. If you truly are the “men and women who built the financial backbone of this country” then not having a coal plant to build should not be a problem. There are far more jobs (many times in fact) to be obtained through renewable energy and energy efficiency than there are in building another dirty, polluting coal plant. We are not against electric generation (which will always need employees) – we are against dirty methods of doing it.
As for global warming, if you want to discuss that I would be glad to talk to you about it – it’s too long a conversation to have here. Let me just say that I can assure you the information you have been given disputing man-made global warming is deliberately misleading and false. I can guess it has come either from online blogs, Fox News, or talk radio – none of which are telling you the truth. You can contact me at Public Citizen’s number in Austin, if you wish to hear what I can tell you about it. We have no desire to “put people out of work” but we won’t sit idly by and let a huge polluter (which will literally kill people ever year) like Sandy Creek be built without doing our best to stop it.
Again, we incentivize far more than we oppose, and we are seeking to create far more jobs than all the coal plants ever could.