TXU Plan Threatens Global Warming Gains
Proposal for building 11 dirty coal-fired plants across Texas could wipe out other states' cuts
Coal rush: Texas's biggest utility, TXU, wants to build 11 new highly polluting, coal-fired plants across the state, and fast.
Take Action »Tell TXU to halt plans to build dirty power plants.
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Many a Texan boasts that everything is bigger and better in the Lone Star state. Even the state's biggest utility, TXU, touts on its web site that it is planning "a Texas-sized $10 billion investment" in 11 power plants across the state. But in this case, bigger is definitely not better.
TXU chief executive, C. John Wilder, has unveiled a plan that would double the utility's already sky-high emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The proposed power plants are to be conventional (or pulverized) coal-fired, which uses outdated, highly polluting technology.
This bodes ill not just for Texas, but for the rest of the country too. State leaders and city mayors are taking decisive actions to curb global warming, and the additional emissions from TXU plants would negate their progress. These new plants would emit 78 million tons of CO2pollution per year.
This huge amount would more than wipe out the gains to be made under California's recent legislation that will cut CO2from automobiles by 30 million tons a year. "TXU might as well give each of their 2.4 million customers four new Cadillac Escalades," says Environmental Defense climate and air expert Jim Marston. "The effect is the same in terms of global warming pollution." TXU's deeply flawed proposal is also raising concerns about air quality and health effects and the real motives of CEO Wilder in pushing this expansion.
Gov. Perry and CEO Wilder are headed down the wrong path
Despite the mind-boggling numbers on pollution, Wilder has said wants to replicate this strategy in other states like Pennsylvania and Virginia. To make matters worse, Texas Governor Rick Perry has signaled his approval of the 11 plants. Last year, after secret meetings with TXU executives, Perry fast-tracked the permitting process for TXU's 11-plant expansion through an executive order, slashing the time frame in half, to six months, and in April of this year, joined Wilder at a press conference to unveil the proposal.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been criticized, too, for skimping on rigorous analyses of air pollution effects and studies of cleaner technologies. With so much at stake, many are wondering why the rushed pace, when if anything such a mammoth expansion should be carefully evaluated.
Perry's forward-looking Republican peers, such as California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York's George Pataki, have led strong initiatives in their states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (see a summary of state actions). Perry — who is running for reelection — is ignoring the global warming threat and taking his state back to the dark age of dirty coal and foul air.
Texas can add power without pumping out so much CO2. A more enlightened strategy would draw on a portfolio of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources to meet growing demand, combined with use of cleaner coal-burning technology that can significantly reduce CO2emissions.
Global warming pollution would mushroom with new TXU plants
Just how big is big in terms of global warming pollution? TXU's 11 proposed plants with a total capacity of 9,079 megawatts, will produce an estimated 78 million tons of CO2per year.
To put that in perspective, 78 million tons of CO2is roughly equivalent to:
More than the total 2001 emissions of 21 states and many countries, including Sweden, Denmark and Portugal;
The annual emissions of 14 million average passenger cars;
2.6 times larger than the benefits of California's groundbreaking greenhouse gas reduction program for cars and trucks (more on this program and other state initiatives);
8 times larger than the 2018 benefits resulting from the Northeastern States Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI — more on this program); or
One-quarter of the 2004 emissions benefits of EPA's entire set of voluntary climate change initiatives.
Another way to grasp the enormity of the additional CO2these 11 plants will spew out, consider these facts:
Power plants are the biggest single source of the country's CO2pollution, most of which comes from coal-fired plants. (The U.S. leads all other nations in global warming pollution, producing nearly one-fourth of the world's CO2.)
Among all states, Texas is already the number-one global warming polluter. If it were a country, it would rank in the top 10 globally.
If all 11 plants are built, TXU — now ranked as the 10th largest emitter of CO2among American utilities — would have the dubious distinction of vaulting to 3rd place .
Clean coal technologies provide power with fewer emissions
One way to minimize carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks is to use advanced coal combustion technologies such as gasification. Twenty-four coal-gasification electric power plants have been proposed around the country and two have been in commercial operation for years, one in Florida and the other in Indiana (owned by Duke Energy). Other large electric utilities are on board with the cleaner technology, including American Electric Power, the nation's largest utility, which plans clean coal-fired plants in West Virginia and Ohio.
And Xcel Energy just announced a proposal for the nation's first coal power plant to use state-of-the art technology that will capture CO2before it is released into the atmosphere and store it underground. Xcel's project in Colorado will use advanced Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle coal technology (IGCC) that gasifies coal and then burns the gas to produce electricity. Yet Wilder refuses to even consider the technology, dismissing it as not sufficiently proven nor affordable, and calling the coal-gasification plants "a gleam in someone's eye."
Wilder seeks rock-bottom costs, at high costs to the rest of us
Wilder's claims that cleaner gasification technology is not affordable rings hollow given that the company just reported a 31 percent increase in quarterly earnings, and the rates they charge their customers — already among the highest in the country — have increased 24 percent in the last year, even as natural gas prices fell. Further, experts in the power sector say that cleaner-technology power plants can produce electricity cost-effectively.
What TXU really means is that it's not profitable enough for the company. In the deregulated Texas market where natural gas plays a big role, TXU will be able to sell its cheap coal-fired power at the same price as power produced by other companies using more expensive natural gas — a kind of bait-and-switch ploy that may rake in profits but is not the most honest way to run a business. "Essentially, the company plans to generate cheap, dirty, coal-fired electricity, and sell it to customers for the price of cleaner, more expensive natural gas-fired electricity," says Marston. "It's like building a Yugo and selling it as a Prius."
Dirty plants would also worsen air quality and pose health risk
Of grave concern, too, is the effect on air quality and public health from increased mercury, smog- and soot-forming pollution (nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide) that 11 new plants would produce. This is of special concern in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, which suffers some of the poorest air in the country and is downwind of where many of the plants are to be located. (More on smog, soot and health.)
By a number of measures, Texas already has the dubious distinction of being high on the list of polluters among states, and not just for CO2. Five of the nation's top 10 power plants that emit the most toxic mercury are in Texas, according to a recent report from the Environmental Integrity Project. TXU's Martin Lake plant ranked number one, with more than 1,700 pounds of mercury emissions. Mercury can cause severe nervous system problems in humans and wildlife. Especially vulnerable are developing fetuses, babies and children.
In a public relations gimmick, Wilder has proclaimed that it will make "voluntary" reductions from its existing plants in Texas to offset the additional emissions. But recent new rules under the Clean Air Act mandate significant cuts in these smog- and soot-forming pollutants as well as toxic mercury in existing power plants. Federal air quality regulations call for reductions that are roughly equal to those TXU says it will make for NOx and SO2, but require even more for mercury. The company is taking credit for changes the law requires it to make, with or without new plants.
Reasonable voices oppose the 11 new power plants
There is a growing chorus of reasoned voices critical of the plan and the way it is being undertaken. Among them are TXU shareholders who have urged Wilder to come up with a more responsible plan. The press across Texas have voiced opposition (see below), and many scientists and doctors have denounced TXU's refusal to use cleaner technology.
All three of Governor Perry's campaign opponents — Democrat Chris Bell and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman — oppose the plan. And Texas mayors are considering joining forces to address the plan's Texas-sized global warming and air pollution issues. Dallas mayor Laura Miller called the new plants "a national issue" and urged further analyses of cleaner technologies. Even a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (a Perry appointee) has urged his agency to push for more stringent analyses of new plants.
Their efforts come on the heels of the recent formation of the Texas Cities for Climate Protection and last year's Conference of Mayors' approval of the U.S. Climate Protection Agreement to lower emissions in cities.
Make Texas a leader, not a laggard, in the global warming fight
The bottom line: Only Governor Perry and TXU, which stands to make a lot of money, are championing these plants. If TXU's Wilder, with Perry behind him, succeeds in building these dirty plants, Texas stands to keep its number-one status as a polluter — and go down in history as the number-one laggard in the fight to curb global warming.
Take Action » Send a letter to TXU CEO Wilder, telling him to halt plans to build dirty power plants.
Find out more
Fort Worth Star-Telegram - "Miller urges mayors to pressure TXU over coal-plant plans" (July 12, 2006)
The Wall Street Journal - "As Emission Restrictions Loom, Texas Utility Bets Big on Coal" by Rebecca Smith (July 21, 2006)
Dallas Morning News - "Texas power plants pack emissions list: State dominates group's U.S. report on mercury, carbon dioxide pollution" (July 28, 2006)
Reuters Wire Story - "Expansion worries weigh on TXU's spreads" (August 2, 2006)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Business Column by Mitchell Schnurman - "11 power plants will help TXU -- but the air?" (August 6, 2006)
Dallas Morning News Editorial - "Skepticism over TXU desire to rush coal plants" (August 6, 2006)
Dallas Morning News Op-Ed by Michael Morris, CEO of American Electric Power - "Running on coal: Even before FutureGen, cleaner technology is worth the price" (August 7, 2006)
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram – "Energy prices expected to roil election" (August 8, 2006)
EnergyWashington Week – "Texas Mayors Cooperate To Push New Clean-Energy Technologies" (August 9, 2006)
More Sources
California Environmental Protection Agency - "Climate Action Team Report to Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature" (March 2006)
Environmental Defense article - "States Taking Action on Global Warming"
Environmental Entrepreneurs - California Solutions for Global Warming (National Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense)
Environmental Entrepreneurs - California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Cutting pollution while strengthening the economy
Environmental Protection Agency – Clean Air Interstate Rule: Texas
Environmental Protection Agency – Power Plant Emissions and Mercury
Proposal for building 11 dirty coal-fired plants across Texas could wipe out other states' cuts
Coal rush: Texas's biggest utility, TXU, wants to build 11 new highly polluting, coal-fired plants across the state, and fast.
Take Action »Tell TXU to halt plans to build dirty power plants.
Email to Friends »Share this article with others.
Many a Texan boasts that everything is bigger and better in the Lone Star state. Even the state's biggest utility, TXU, touts on its web site that it is planning "a Texas-sized $10 billion investment" in 11 power plants across the state. But in this case, bigger is definitely not better.
TXU chief executive, C. John Wilder, has unveiled a plan that would double the utility's already sky-high emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The proposed power plants are to be conventional (or pulverized) coal-fired, which uses outdated, highly polluting technology.
This bodes ill not just for Texas, but for the rest of the country too. State leaders and city mayors are taking decisive actions to curb global warming, and the additional emissions from TXU plants would negate their progress. These new plants would emit 78 million tons of CO2pollution per year.
This huge amount would more than wipe out the gains to be made under California's recent legislation that will cut CO2from automobiles by 30 million tons a year. "TXU might as well give each of their 2.4 million customers four new Cadillac Escalades," says Environmental Defense climate and air expert Jim Marston. "The effect is the same in terms of global warming pollution." TXU's deeply flawed proposal is also raising concerns about air quality and health effects and the real motives of CEO Wilder in pushing this expansion.
Gov. Perry and CEO Wilder are headed down the wrong path
Despite the mind-boggling numbers on pollution, Wilder has said wants to replicate this strategy in other states like Pennsylvania and Virginia. To make matters worse, Texas Governor Rick Perry has signaled his approval of the 11 plants. Last year, after secret meetings with TXU executives, Perry fast-tracked the permitting process for TXU's 11-plant expansion through an executive order, slashing the time frame in half, to six months, and in April of this year, joined Wilder at a press conference to unveil the proposal.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been criticized, too, for skimping on rigorous analyses of air pollution effects and studies of cleaner technologies. With so much at stake, many are wondering why the rushed pace, when if anything such a mammoth expansion should be carefully evaluated.
Perry's forward-looking Republican peers, such as California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York's George Pataki, have led strong initiatives in their states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (see a summary of state actions). Perry — who is running for reelection — is ignoring the global warming threat and taking his state back to the dark age of dirty coal and foul air.
Texas can add power without pumping out so much CO2. A more enlightened strategy would draw on a portfolio of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources to meet growing demand, combined with use of cleaner coal-burning technology that can significantly reduce CO2emissions.
Global warming pollution would mushroom with new TXU plants
Just how big is big in terms of global warming pollution? TXU's 11 proposed plants with a total capacity of 9,079 megawatts, will produce an estimated 78 million tons of CO2per year.
To put that in perspective, 78 million tons of CO2is roughly equivalent to:
More than the total 2001 emissions of 21 states and many countries, including Sweden, Denmark and Portugal;
The annual emissions of 14 million average passenger cars;
2.6 times larger than the benefits of California's groundbreaking greenhouse gas reduction program for cars and trucks (more on this program and other state initiatives);
8 times larger than the 2018 benefits resulting from the Northeastern States Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI — more on this program); or
One-quarter of the 2004 emissions benefits of EPA's entire set of voluntary climate change initiatives.
Another way to grasp the enormity of the additional CO2these 11 plants will spew out, consider these facts:
Power plants are the biggest single source of the country's CO2pollution, most of which comes from coal-fired plants. (The U.S. leads all other nations in global warming pollution, producing nearly one-fourth of the world's CO2.)
Among all states, Texas is already the number-one global warming polluter. If it were a country, it would rank in the top 10 globally.
If all 11 plants are built, TXU — now ranked as the 10th largest emitter of CO2among American utilities — would have the dubious distinction of vaulting to 3rd place .
Clean coal technologies provide power with fewer emissions
One way to minimize carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks is to use advanced coal combustion technologies such as gasification. Twenty-four coal-gasification electric power plants have been proposed around the country and two have been in commercial operation for years, one in Florida and the other in Indiana (owned by Duke Energy). Other large electric utilities are on board with the cleaner technology, including American Electric Power, the nation's largest utility, which plans clean coal-fired plants in West Virginia and Ohio.
And Xcel Energy just announced a proposal for the nation's first coal power plant to use state-of-the art technology that will capture CO2before it is released into the atmosphere and store it underground. Xcel's project in Colorado will use advanced Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle coal technology (IGCC) that gasifies coal and then burns the gas to produce electricity. Yet Wilder refuses to even consider the technology, dismissing it as not sufficiently proven nor affordable, and calling the coal-gasification plants "a gleam in someone's eye."
Wilder seeks rock-bottom costs, at high costs to the rest of us
Wilder's claims that cleaner gasification technology is not affordable rings hollow given that the company just reported a 31 percent increase in quarterly earnings, and the rates they charge their customers — already among the highest in the country — have increased 24 percent in the last year, even as natural gas prices fell. Further, experts in the power sector say that cleaner-technology power plants can produce electricity cost-effectively.
What TXU really means is that it's not profitable enough for the company. In the deregulated Texas market where natural gas plays a big role, TXU will be able to sell its cheap coal-fired power at the same price as power produced by other companies using more expensive natural gas — a kind of bait-and-switch ploy that may rake in profits but is not the most honest way to run a business. "Essentially, the company plans to generate cheap, dirty, coal-fired electricity, and sell it to customers for the price of cleaner, more expensive natural gas-fired electricity," says Marston. "It's like building a Yugo and selling it as a Prius."
Dirty plants would also worsen air quality and pose health risk
Of grave concern, too, is the effect on air quality and public health from increased mercury, smog- and soot-forming pollution (nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide) that 11 new plants would produce. This is of special concern in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, which suffers some of the poorest air in the country and is downwind of where many of the plants are to be located. (More on smog, soot and health.)
By a number of measures, Texas already has the dubious distinction of being high on the list of polluters among states, and not just for CO2. Five of the nation's top 10 power plants that emit the most toxic mercury are in Texas, according to a recent report from the Environmental Integrity Project. TXU's Martin Lake plant ranked number one, with more than 1,700 pounds of mercury emissions. Mercury can cause severe nervous system problems in humans and wildlife. Especially vulnerable are developing fetuses, babies and children.
In a public relations gimmick, Wilder has proclaimed that it will make "voluntary" reductions from its existing plants in Texas to offset the additional emissions. But recent new rules under the Clean Air Act mandate significant cuts in these smog- and soot-forming pollutants as well as toxic mercury in existing power plants. Federal air quality regulations call for reductions that are roughly equal to those TXU says it will make for NOx and SO2, but require even more for mercury. The company is taking credit for changes the law requires it to make, with or without new plants.
Reasonable voices oppose the 11 new power plants
There is a growing chorus of reasoned voices critical of the plan and the way it is being undertaken. Among them are TXU shareholders who have urged Wilder to come up with a more responsible plan. The press across Texas have voiced opposition (see below), and many scientists and doctors have denounced TXU's refusal to use cleaner technology.
All three of Governor Perry's campaign opponents — Democrat Chris Bell and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman — oppose the plan. And Texas mayors are considering joining forces to address the plan's Texas-sized global warming and air pollution issues. Dallas mayor Laura Miller called the new plants "a national issue" and urged further analyses of cleaner technologies. Even a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (a Perry appointee) has urged his agency to push for more stringent analyses of new plants.
Their efforts come on the heels of the recent formation of the Texas Cities for Climate Protection and last year's Conference of Mayors' approval of the U.S. Climate Protection Agreement to lower emissions in cities.
Make Texas a leader, not a laggard, in the global warming fight
The bottom line: Only Governor Perry and TXU, which stands to make a lot of money, are championing these plants. If TXU's Wilder, with Perry behind him, succeeds in building these dirty plants, Texas stands to keep its number-one status as a polluter — and go down in history as the number-one laggard in the fight to curb global warming.
Take Action » Send a letter to TXU CEO Wilder, telling him to halt plans to build dirty power plants.
Find out more
Fort Worth Star-Telegram - "Miller urges mayors to pressure TXU over coal-plant plans" (July 12, 2006)
The Wall Street Journal - "As Emission Restrictions Loom, Texas Utility Bets Big on Coal" by Rebecca Smith (July 21, 2006)
Dallas Morning News - "Texas power plants pack emissions list: State dominates group's U.S. report on mercury, carbon dioxide pollution" (July 28, 2006)
Reuters Wire Story - "Expansion worries weigh on TXU's spreads" (August 2, 2006)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Business Column by Mitchell Schnurman - "11 power plants will help TXU -- but the air?" (August 6, 2006)
Dallas Morning News Editorial - "Skepticism over TXU desire to rush coal plants" (August 6, 2006)
Dallas Morning News Op-Ed by Michael Morris, CEO of American Electric Power - "Running on coal: Even before FutureGen, cleaner technology is worth the price" (August 7, 2006)
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram – "Energy prices expected to roil election" (August 8, 2006)
EnergyWashington Week – "Texas Mayors Cooperate To Push New Clean-Energy Technologies" (August 9, 2006)
More Sources
California Environmental Protection Agency - "Climate Action Team Report to Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature" (March 2006)
Environmental Defense article - "States Taking Action on Global Warming"
Environmental Entrepreneurs - California Solutions for Global Warming (National Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense)
Environmental Entrepreneurs - California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Cutting pollution while strengthening the economy
Environmental Protection Agency – Clean Air Interstate Rule: Texas
Environmental Protection Agency – Power Plant Emissions and Mercury
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