CPS Energy Takes Environmental Step Backward With Methane Gas Plant Purchase
SAN ANTONIO – Today, the country’s largest municipally owned gas and electric utility – San Antonio’s CPS Energy – announced an agreement to purchase power plants that burn methane gas at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion, dealing a substantial blow to the utility’s progress toward lowering emissions.
The power plants located in Harris, Brazoria, and Galveston counties will be added to the portfolio of a utility that, in recent years, has made public health and environmental progress with promises that include shuttering its coal operations at the J.K. Spruce Station by 2027. DeeDee Belmares, clean energy advocate for the Texas office of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:
“CPS Energy’s purchase of four methane gas plants sets the region back at a time when the utility needs to end its reliance on fossil fuels for power generation. Gas is misleadingly promoted as a clean option, but it still generates harmful pollutants like NOx and mercury, and methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases that is quickly warming the planet. The health and climate impacts of gas plants on communities should lead CPS Energy to stop spending more than a billion dollars to generate more pollution. Instead, the utility should invest in wind, solar and battery storage, in addition to programs that incentivize customers to reduce their demand through conservation.
“Another brutally hot Texas summer is about to end without any calls from the state’s electric grid operator to conserve or risk outages, thanks in large part to thriving adoption of solar and wind energy that, when paired with batteries, provides Texans with energy that is reliable, far cleaner, and affordable than polluting fossil fuels. The transition to clean sources of energy is good for public health and the pocketbooks of Texans, the opposite of what more fossil fuels can provide.”