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Fighting Dirty Energy In Texas

Coal

Texas cities are already overburdened with toxic air pollution. The last thing we need is more polluting coal plants that will:

  • Threaten our health and the health of our children
  • Stifle the promise of a new economy based on energy efficiency and renewable energy
  • Contribute to the numerous ecological and environmental problems associated with burning fossil fuels
  • Overburden our existing emergency healthcare system

In 2007, TXU reduced the plants they were going to build from 11 down to three. But there are still 12 being proposed or built in Texas. These 12 New Plants Will Add:

  • 77 million tons per year of CO2
  • 53,630 tons per year of SO2
  • 29,660 tons per year of NOx
  • 14,180 tons per year of PM
  • 3,434 pounds per year of Mercury

For more information about the work Public Citizen is doing in Texas, click here.

For more information about what you can do to stop a coal plant planned for your community go to www.stopthecoalplant.org.

Federal efforts to resuscitate a nuclear industry that was DOA come with a cost: your tax dollars (over $13 billion) are being spent to support the companies that want to build new nukes, transferring the considerable financial risk from corporations to taxpayers. Public Citizen, through its Energy Program, is actively debunking nuclear industry propaganda and challenging new reactors at the state and federal level while vigorously working to promote viable energy solutions.

For more information about the nuclear renaissance, click here.

Proposed Reactors in texas

Energy companies already are pursuing permits to build and operate 34 new reactors throughout the country. Despite the prohibitive cost and fatal flaws of nuclear power, 17 applications to build new nuclear reactors have been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Four of these have been submitted within the state of Texas. Public Citizen Texas opposes all of these plants and has joined the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition as a legal intervener in the Comanche Peak and South Texas Project (STP) licensing process. The legal cases made against Comanche Peak and STP are some of the most successful of their kind nationwide. STP has more contentions accepted by the administrative court than in any other case. Comanche Peak is unique because the administrative court admitted a contention that the license application did not adequately consider energy alternatives and advances in energy storage technology.

Click here to find a chart with the nuclear expansion permits in Texas and their current status. For more information on the proposed nuclear plants for Texas go to:

Diesel Pollution

Diesel pollution poses a serious threat to the health of Texans, particularly in urban areas where a substantial portion of toxic particulate pollution (soot) and ozone forming pollution comes from diesel engines.

Texas consumes more diesel fuel than any other state.

About 8% of all diesel fuel consumed on the highways and about 11% of diesel consumed off-road nationally is consumed in Texas. There are an estimated 6 million off-road vehicles in Texas.

For more information about diesel pollution in Texas, click here

At a time when cleaner, safer and cheaper alternatives are available, pursuing dirty energy makes no sense