This week the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality received a recommendation from two administrative judges denying the air permit for the proposed Las Brisas Energy Center in Corpus Christi. The decision is a ray of hope in the battle to prevent the petcoke plant from showering the citizens of Corpus Christi with harmful pollutants including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and lead.
Set to be built in the Inner Harbor of Corpus Christi, the petroleum coke-fired power plant would cost nearly $3 billion.
Petcoke piles along the ship channel in Corpus Christi
The recommendation was issued following two weeks of testimony and nearly two months of private deliberation between the judges. Reasons for their decision against the permit were that the company:
- failed to perform analysis on maximum achievable control technology to be used for its boilers
- failed to properly account for second emissions
- failed to properly account for emissions from material handling
- improperly adjusted the moisture content of the petroleum coke handled at the Port of Corpus Christi in violation of state and federal guidance, resulting in unreliable emissions modeling (more…)
