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Posts Tagged ‘Coal Plant Permitting Process’

Texas Roll Beyond Coal Tour Headed Your Way

Posted in Coal, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2009 |

imagesThis week Public Citizen Texas and the Sierra Club are launching a statewide media tour of Texas coal plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently rejected key aspects of the air permitting plan of Texas’ regulatory agency — the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and called for proper enforcement of the Clean Air Act in Texas.

That’s why we’re launching a TEXAS STATE-WIDE COAL PLANT TOUR to visit communities that have been negatively impacted by the TCEQ’s failure to enforce the law and control pollution.  We’ll be collecting postcards from citizens at the tour stops across Texas to deliver the messages to the EPA in support of the EPA’s recent announcement — and will have an action center here on the blog so that you can get involved as well.

If you live in Waco, Dallas, Abilene, College Station, Corpus Christi, Bay City, or Houston, keep an eye out for our clean energy trailer!  You’ll find us in the following locations at these times:

Week One Tour Stops

Monday, Sept. 21, WACO, 10:00 am, Heritage Park, 3rd Street & Austin Avenue

Tuesday, Sept. 22 , DALLAS, 10:00 am, The 500 Block of Reunion Blvd East, across the street from the Dallas Morning News (32.774975,-96.807328 on google maps)

Wednesday, Sept. 23, ABILENE, 10:00 am, Lake Fort Phantom Hill, Sweetwater, Texas

Week Two Tour Stops

Monday, Sept. 28, COLLEGE STATION, 10:00 am, Location TBA

Tuesday, Sept. 29, CORPUS CHRISTI, 10:00 am, Location TBA

Tuesday, Sept. 29, BAY CITY, 4:00 pm, Steps of the Court House (1700 7th Street)

Wednesday, Sept. 30, HOUSTON, 10:00 am, Tranquility Park, 515 Rusk, across from the federal courthouse

To learn more about proposed and existing coal plants in Texas and the negative impacts that they bring to our state, check out The Threat from Coal is Far From Over.

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Oh, FUUUUUUUUDGE!

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 19, 2008 |

fudge1

The EPA’s newest decision definitely brought the dreaded “F-dash-dash-dash” word to mind.

Reports Grist.org:

Coal-fired power plants’ greenhouse-gas emissions shouldn’t be taken into consideration when determining whether to approve their construction, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson ruled this week. The ruling could clear the way for at least a handful of new coal plants to be approved in the final days of the Bush administration. “The current concerns over global climate change should not drive EPA into adopting an unworkable policy of requiring emission controls,” Johnson wrote.

Just as I was getting into the holiday spirit, Stephen Johnson has to hit us with this.

In case you’re not quite as obsessed with carbon dioxide regulation and coal plants as we are here at Texas Vox, let me provide a little background.  In November the EPA’s governance board ruled that its regional office had been too hasty in approving  a new coal-fired power plant in Bonanza, Utah because the plant didn’t include carbon dioxide emissions or control techniques in their permit application.  The Sierra Club helped secure this victory by filing a suit against Utah’s Deseret Power Electric Cooperative for not controlling carbon dioxide. Their argument was based upon the landmark Massachusetts v EPA case, which required the agency to regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

The Bonanza decision was, in a word, wicked awesome (okay, two words).  It gave environmentalists a great new tool for stopping coal-fired power plants and signalled a sea change in the government’s willingness to take action over carbon dioxide emissions.  So the fact that the EPA is now telling permitters that they cannot consider greenhouse gas emissions when processing applications  is a major kick in the pants.  It could mean slated plants that wouldn’t have been approved could get the green light during these last weeks of the Bush administration. In a New York Times article, Vickie Patton, from the Environmental Defense Fund estimates that as many as 8,000 megawatts of new coal-fired power plants could skate through as a result of this ruling.

I’m still rather uncertain of what this decision means for the incoming administration.   Lisa Jackson, Obama’s new pick to head the EPA, is considerably more progressive on greenhouse gas emissions than Johnson, and could theoretically reverse this decision.

Reports the Washington Post:

It was unclear yesterday what the ruling’s real-world impact will be. The EPA says that about 50 plants — either new or significantly remodeled — must obtain a permit under this provision every year. But Meyers said he does not know if any are positioned to receive final approval before President-elect Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

The Obama administration is likely to review the case, and Democratic officials close to the president-elect’s team say that the Supreme Court ruling and the EPA’s power to regulate carbon dioxide can serve as powerful levers to bring corporations and other parties to a bargaining table about broad framework for controlling greenhouse gases.

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