TCEQ Grants Granbury Residents Challenge to Texas Energy Fund Methane Gas Plant
The first Texas Energy Fund gas plant proposal to seek a major air permit will face community opposition through a contested case hearing
AUSTIN, Texas—Today, Granbury residents convinced the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to proceed with their challenge to the air permit for the proposed Wolf Hollow III methane-burning power plant, marking the first time a Texas Energy Fund (TEF) project will face a Contested Case Hearing (CCH).
The proposed plant would sit on the same property as the controversial Marathon Digital bitcoin mining facility. Residents blame the Marathon facility for numerous health issues. If built, Wolf Hollow III would be added to Wolf Hollow I and II, owned by Constellation Energy, which successfully applied for funding under the state’s TEF.
TCEQ commissioners authorized the CCH for 180 days to examine Wolf Hollow III’s potential impact on air quality, human health and livestock.
Nearby residents report health problems they blame on the constant low-frequency noise generated by Marathon’s operations. To this already worried community, the TCEQ would allow increased air pollution and the other hazards of a methane power plant.
“The TCEQ agreed that Granbury residents sufficiently raised the question of whether air pollution from the proposed plant could harm their health and livestock,” said Kamil Cook, climate and clean energy associate for the Texas office of Public Citizen. “Now the question is whether the administrative law judge validates these concerns by recommending denial of the permit. The people of Granbury secured a victory today, but their concerns are shared by those in other TEF-targeted communities across Texas.”
The Texas Legislature approved legislation to create the TEF in 2023. Though sold to voters as a solution to the state’s energy demand problems after Winter Storm Uri, not a single megawatt of energy has been generated through the TEF. Instead, the TEF has only demonstrated that new gas plants are expensive, slow to be built, and opposed by residents due to their harmful pollution and other impacts.
“We hope the permit applicant and the agency do more than simply go through the motions of this Contested Case Hearing,” said Cheryl Shadden, a Granbury resident and one of the CCH petitioners. “This is an opportunity to work with us to address our concerns about the proposed peaker gas plant, the existing gas plant and the bitcoin mine. People have valid concerns about pollution, noise, and the impact of this facility on our health and well-being. There’s a lot Constellation Energy could do to become a good neighbor, including sound walls at the Bitcoin mine, a commitment not to expand the mine, and air monitoring at the gas plant to limit pollution.”
Last year, the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved 17 projects for TEF funding, and Gov. Greg Abbott called for the Legislature to provide additional funds. It is part of state leaders’ focus on increasing generating capacity that would benefit fossil fuel interests instead of addressing the fast-rising demand for electricity, which the state’s electric grid operator, ERCOT, warns will double by the decade’s end.
“We stand with the folks fighting the Wolf Hollow plant near Granbury and with other citizen’s groups across Texas opposed to these new gas power plants in their communities,” added Travis Brown of Move the Gas Plant, a group formed to counter a TEF project in Lee County. “ If these gas plants are to be built, the state should ensure they are in places where they don’t destroy communities and threaten human health. In Lee County, it’s likely much, if not most, of the electricity generated by another TEF applicant – the Sandow Lakes Energy gas plant – will power the Riot Platforms Bitcoin mining operation near Rockdale. That facility is the largest Bitcoin miner in the country. Much of the power from this gas plant may not go onto the ERCOT grid to power our homes.”
Public Citizen has called on legislators to invest in much cheaper options, such as energy efficiency programs, that address demand and are faster to implement.