Dirty coal in Texas’ future?
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Posted on February 12, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Wanted to share this story, because it is emblematic of our problem — and of our ecological hope. TXU Corp., the big Texas utility company, is planning to invest $10 billion in coal-fired power plants to provide power to the state’s rapidly growing population. Texas is pretty weak in the regulatory world when it comes to energy companies, so there is some concern among environmentalists that this plan, backed by Gov. Rick Parry, will win approval.
Meanwhile, a growing mass of public opposes the plan:
Environmental groups have been joined by elected officials and business leaders arguing that TXU’s plan to build 11 new coal plants will drastically increase emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide, worsening the state’s air quality and contributing to global warming.
That is what coal-fired plants tend to do — all of the above. Coal is the dirtiest source of energy, and perhaps the most ecologically destructive there is, and we should be moving in a very different direction. The mayors of Houston and Dallas, apparently tired of breathing dirty air, oppose the TXU plan, so there is some political clout behind the opposition.
But beyond fouling the air and atmosphere, coal production begins with other ecological damage in the way it is mined and processed — like sheering off tops of mountains (more than 450 in Appalachia thus far, and going strong) or opening vast pits in the earth to get at the coal underneath.
As Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth said in the linked Energy Bulletin article, “Making coal clean is an oxymoron”
Meanwhile, this tidbit — that refineries in the Gulf Coast are among the worst polluters in the country. Part of the problem here is lax regulation on the part of the EPA in states like Texas and Louisiana.
Are we surprised? given the clout of the energy industry in the politics of these states?
Just a reminder that these are some of the dirty polluting practices that feed our energy consumption. Whatever we think of the industry, we are also responsible.
The good news in Texas is the extent of the opposition to TXU’s plans. The good news in Appalachia is the extent of organizing to stop the practice of mountaintopping. Many more people are taking their responsibility seriously. I urge us all in that direction.
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