Clean Air In the News

Legislators returning to Austin next week will be met with a growing controversy. A plan by TXU to build up to 19 new coal-burning power plants across the state continues to stir up debate.

A coalition of environmental groups will ask legislators to stop the plan for these coal plants. They want more time to figure out the best way to handle the state's looming energy crisis. Even staunch opponents of the coal plants agree that Texas is on the verge of an energy crisis.

That's why TXU wants to build a new coal-burning facility at Milam County's existing Alcoa plant and at least 11 other locations by 2010. Many of those new facilities would be clustered in Central Texas.

"The bad news is that most of our metropolitan areas are downwind of the emissions from these power plants," said Tom "Smitty" Smith with the Texas office of Public Citizen.

"The state of Texas needs this power sooner rather than later. We're using less coal to get more power. These new units will be 80 percent cleaner than the average U.S. coal plant," TXU spokesperson Kim Morgan said in a phone interview with KXAN.

Some say the new plants won't even solve the problem. They say the plants will just make the problems worse. "These plants would not be brought online in time to meet that power crunch in 2008, and by the time they were built, they'd actually provide way more energy than Texas needs," Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, said.

"Air pollution is already making Texas families sick. More dirty coal plants will mean more asthma, more lung disease and more premature deaths," said Lisa Doggett with Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility.

TXU's response is that "Coal has gotten a bad reputation over the years. People picture smokestacks billowing black smoke. That's not the way we operate." In a show of support, Gov. Rick Perry has already ordered state agencies to speed up parts of the permit process.

"They truly are bulk permitting major industrial facilities that could impact Texas for 50 years. This is unprecedented," Karen Hadden with the SEED Coalition said. The controversy is catching the attention of lawmakers.

"On a daily basis, we are getting inquiries from the members of the Legislature asking what they can do about this problem and what the alternatives are," Smith said.

That's just what the environmental coalitions want. They will be knocking on lawmakers' doors next week, asking them to sign on to re-evaluate the coal plant plan.