Thank you Austin City Council

by: Texas Sierra Club

Sat Dec 03, 2011 at 10:02 AM CST

Every Austin City Council member has pledged to move Austin beyond coal and phase out of the Fayette coal plant. Please thank the City Council members for their bold leadership in moving Austin towards a clean energy future.

In more good news, the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) last week officially rejected a water permit for the White Stallion coal plant after over 2,000 of you sent comments and demanded that LCRA not give another drop of our water to dirty coal. This LCRA victory comes on the heels of San Antonio's recent decision to shut down their Dealy coal plant and invest in clean energy.

These are huge victories for our Texas grassroots movement!

Since the 2009 Austin Generation Task Force, our volunteers have been urging Austin City Council to move beyond coal. You collected petitions, attended leadership trainings, hosted house parties, made phone calls, flyered events, contacted City Hall, and now your efforts have paid off!

Austin joins cities across the country that have recognized coal's health effects and increasing costs are too risky to sustain. It's no longer a question of IF Austin will move beyond coal; it's now a question of WHEN.

Our next goal is to work with Austin Energy and the LCRA to develop an aggressive timeline to shut down Fayette by 2016. If we succeed, Austin will be the biggest city in the country to phase out of a municipally-owned coal plant. This is an opportunity for us to lead by example, and we look forward to the challenge of making Austin #1.

These victories show that when we work together, we can build a cleaner, smarter energy future for our community. Thanks for all your help to get us there!  

Grassroots Momentum Building to Move Austin Beyond Coal

by: Texas Sierra Club

Sat Nov 12, 2011 at 11:02 AM CST

In just two months, we've signed up 24 house party hosts and gathered more than 1,000 petition signatures demanding Austin Energy phase out of our city-owned Fayette coal paltn. We're well on track to meet our goal of 5,000 signatures by Earth Day 2012.

These efforts are getting noticed. Last week, Mayor Lee Leffingwell told the Community Impact Newspaper that he's "willing to entertain the option" of moving beyond coal.

Now we need to keep the momentum going...

We need as many people as possible to attend our Beyond Coal Town Hall on December 4th and show the decision makers that our grassroots movement is growing bigger every day. We'll also be presenting new policy research that shows the Fayette coal plant can be phased out in a cost-effective way, protecting Austin Energy rate payers from the rising costs of coal.

What: Beyond Coal Town Hall
When: Sunday, December 4th, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Where: Texas State Employee's Union Office, 1700 South 1st Street, Austin, TX 78704
RSVP: Click here to RSVP

This campaign is important because Fayette pollutes our air and wastes 5 billion gallons of water every year. But if we phase Austin out of coal, this will set an example for the rest of the country. Austin could become the biggest city in the country to divest from a municipally owned coal plant.

Let's work together to make Austin a leader of the 21st century clean energy economy!

New EPA Ozone Limits -- A Great Way to Start the New Year!

by: Texas Sierra Club

Tue Jan 12, 2010 at 00:44 PM CST

Last week, President Obama’s EPA made an announcement that will spring Texas forward to cleaner air!  I love the idea of being able to run on Lady Bird Lake trail without wheezing on certain days.  And, I love the idea that the number of ozone alert days could go down.  The children I'd like to have someday might not have to stay inside the classroom like kids have to now on Ozone Action Alert days.

Here’s the big news.  The EPA proposed an improvement to the federal clean air standard for ozone to a range of 60 to 70 parts per billion -- This step could signficantly lower ozone pollution across the state!  The EPA will soon ask for public comments from you. The Sierra Club is already taking action to support the new, proposed rule!   After the public comments process, the rule will become finalized by August 31 of this year.

The announcement came January 7 from the EPA in Washington.  Texas is going to be one of the states impacted most because despite our beautiful dream of wide open space and big blue skies on the frontier, both urban and rural Texans are breathing some of the dirtiest smog in the nation.  In anticipation of the EPA’s announcement, the American Lung Association in Texas, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Texas State Legislators including Senator Kirk Watson and Representatives Lon Burnam and Eddie Rodriguez environmental groups and local citizens impacted by air pollution in our state eagerly welcomed the decision at press conferences in Austin (News8 Austin video), Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. 

You Don't Have to be a Doctor to Know 

Why is Obama’s EPA doing this?  The proposed rule revises a much less protective proposal from the Bush Administration.  The Bush EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) went with a less than adequate standard (and little enforcement of that!) despite the obvious damage it would cause to our health and air quality.  The ozone limits announced today meet recommendations from the EPA’s scientific panel based on 1700 scientific studies, many indicating that ozone is a lot worse for our lungs than we previously knew.

At Wednesday’s press conference at the State Capitol, Dr. Don Williams pointed out that “You certainly don’t have to be a doctor to know that brown haze is not good for your lungs.”  Dr. Don compared ozone to lead explaining that we didn’t know how dangerous lead was until we found out through research.  Breathing Ozone can kill.  When we breathe in smog, it burns and damages the respiratory system like a sun burn might burn the skin.  It can lead to further respiratory illnesses like cardio-pulmonary obstructive disorder and heart disease.  According to the American Lung Association, even short term increases in ozone have been found to increase deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory problems.  That’s why this new ozone limit is so important.

After the comment period and finalization of the new standard, Texas’ multi-county, regional Councils of Government and the TCEQ will create and submit State Implementation Plans to the EPA that will identify the sources and ways we’ll reduce emissions. That’s really good news for all of us breathers.

We can look at where ozone comes from.  Ozone comes from nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Volatile Organic Compounds emitted by large industrial facilities -- coal plants, cement kilns, refineries, and chemical plants, but also from smaller yet hugely numerous sources like our vehicles in traffic, heavy, off-road construction equipment, gasoline stations, paint shops, and natural gas drilling.

First Step, Halt Proposed New Coal Plants

One of the easiest ways to control NOx emissions is to go after the largest ‘single point sources’.  Because coal plants create almost 35% of all industrial ozone, Texas must reverse the Texas coal rush.  We have to stop building new coal plants and we have to phase out the dirty, existing coal plants.  We have to and we can make a transition to clean power. 

Texas doctors and nurses have been focusing more and more on the coal-fired power plants.  Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is speaking out because they recognize burning coal for electricity is terrible for people’s health.  Along with Dr. Don, PSR spokespersons Dr. Stuart Abamson, a pediatric children’s hospital, asthma & immunology specialist spoke at the Houston press event and pediatrician Dr. Karen Lewis spoke at the Dallas event last week.   

 In Corpus Christi, Dr. Bruce Taylor, pediatrician, anesthesiologist and a member of the local Clean Economy Coalition spoke about the problems presented by Chase Power Development’s plans to build an ironically named ‘Las Brisas’ -- Spanish for ‘the breezes’, coke-powered plant.  (Coke emits NOx and is regulated like coal.) Las Brisas would put out more pollution than the 6 refineries currently operating in Corpus Christi combined including 3,776 TONS annually of ozone-forming, asthma-causing NOx.  Just up the coast, citizens and elected officials are looking closely at the proposed White Stallion coal plant, planned in Matagorda County just south of the Houston-Galveston ‘non-attainment’ area.  Las Brisas and White Stallion would add up with the 9 other proposed coal plant projects in Texas to equal 27,013  TONS per year of additional NOx in our air.  That’s why Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, and local environmental groups and individuals around the state are fighting these new coal plants.  Placing a moratorium on any new coal plant permits and reconsidering all recently permitted coal plants would be one easy way to help meet the new ozone standard. 

DMN to Perry:  Get Over It 

 This week, Governor Rick Perry and the TCEQ continued to fight the Obama Administration’s clean air and climate protection plans while editors at the Dallas Morning News want Perry to get over it.  They want the state to now ‘get started on a serious ozone reduction strategy.’

A reporter at the Austin press conference asked a good question, ‘What will make Texas local and state government clean-up the air?’ 

Good question.  If you ask me, the reason coal plants have been polluting Texas is because the Bush Administration EPA failed to act, and the TCEQ under Governor Perry’s appointees went right along.  We have a new administration now and a new EPA that is willing to enforce the law to protect public health.  What can happen?  For one thing, the EPA has the ultimate say over the State Implementation Plan so EPA can require serious, health-based permitting plans.  If regions around the State don’t reach ‘attainment’ of the clean air standards, they can lose federal highway funds for one thing. 

 Clean Energy Solutions

Texas is now at an energy crossroads.  Businesses are looking for clean energy solutions.  The Texas energy industry can seize this huge opportunity to turn away from coal and create green jobs and wealth by building their part of the new clean energy economy.   We have the smarts in this energy savvy state.   Texas received more money for energy efficiency programs like home weatherization than any other state in the country after New York.  We have the renewable power resources. Texas generates more wind power than any other state in the nation, and we have incredible solar power resource. 

 Sierra Club, other environmental groups, and our partners in the medical community applaud the EPA for taking this step in the right direction.  The only way we’ll get our cities back into attainment of the clean air standards is to stop any new coal plants from being built, and to phase out and shut down some of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants.  We are calling on the EPA to halt the permitting of any new coal plants in the state of Texas and to help TCEQ prioritize which of the dirtiest old coal plants to phase out first. 

State Legislators are ready to take action.  As Senator Kirk Watson said at last week’s announcement, “Our goal…should be to make sure that we all get the air we need to breathe well, have fun, work productively, and keep our region competitive with areas that can offer companies and workers unmistakably clean air.  Non-attainment isn’t something to be afraid of.” 

Challenging the Second Wave of the Texas Coal Rush

by: Texas Sierra Club

Mon Nov 23, 2009 at 01:03 PM CST

What’s all the fuss about?  More and more Texans are realizing that Texas is in the problematic position of having more proposed coal plants than any other state in the nation.  With 12 in various stages of construction or permitting challenges, Michigan, second worst with 4 planned coal plants, leaves Texas in the really big dust.  

Texans are learning that coal plants make people sick.   Medical practitioners have become increasingly involved in opposing Texas coal plants – particularly in Corpus Christi, the site of the proposed Las Brisas pet coke plant;  in Austin, which could become the first municipal utility in the state to reject coal; and in Dallas, which is downwind of the majority of Texas existing coal plants and has been in non-attainment of federal air quality standards. At the EPA last week, Dallas-based pediatrician, Dr. Karen Lewis with Physicians for Social Responsibility said, “Coal plants in Texas emit huge volumes of heavy duty respiratory toxins and we're seeing skyrocketing rates of asthma and respiratory illness in children.” Dr. Lewis addressed mercury pollution which leads to developmental and neurological disorders in children, “Doctors recommend that pregnant women not eat large fish and limit their intake of smaller fish, but can we talk about where the mercury in such otherwise healthy food as fish comes from?  The bottom line is that we shouldn’t be building more coal plants in Texas.”   

There are other reasons to fight coal plants.   Coal plants cost too much.   And, costs are rising as new, more protective clean air standards become law.   The new standards will place many additional regions of Texas in ‘non-attainment’ status jeopardizing federal funds and they will require coal plants to install costly new scrubbers.   Texans don’t need to foot this bill when we live in a state with so much clean energy know-how and wind and solar resource. 

Coal plants also cause global warming and use enormous amounts of water.  This is a serious problem in Texas where we experience extreme drought. 

Fortunately, more people are becoming actively involved.  People are hearing about the second wave of the Texas coal rush in part thanks to Forrest Wilder’s Texas Observer article ‘Coal Star State’ and also thanks to hundreds of Sierrans, our environmental partners and bicycling community friends who came out to Roll Beyond Coal at rallies, bike rides, and hikes in five Texas cities on October 31. Sierra Club’s long time chemist, former state regulator, and clean air warrior, Neil Carman believes that the recently appointed new EPA Administrator at Region VI in Dallas can make a difference in the coal plant fight. 

We got a hopeful sign last week when a company decided that it won’t import PCBs and burn them in Port Arthur.  He thinks the new EPA can also intervene on TCEQ’s habit of permitting big coal polluters. 

Sierra Club will continue challenging coal plants in Texas and we need your help!  Let the EPA know today that you want them to block Texas coal plants and take a serious look at the 17 existing coal plants. 

Goolsby No Friend of "Fresh Clean Air"

by: jamescanup

Mon Oct 27, 2008 at 11:17 AM CDT

"I know that we're working hard with the Texas air quality. And the new power plants that are being built, they're going to be adding on to nuclear, which helps the fresh clean air. The new coal plants, they're not going to be putting out as much of the carbon monoxide."

- Rep. Tony Goolsby

Challenged legislator Rep. Tony Goolsby may have misled voters and misstated his environmental record in an interview aired today on KERA Radio in Dallas.  In the interview, reporter Bill Brown states, "Goolsby defends his records, saying he's always...supported clean environmental initiatives, including alternative forms of energy like wind, solar and nuclear."

Rep. Goolsby's record, in fact, does not indicate much support for clean air at all.  Looking just at the votes in the last legislative session in 2007, Rep. Goolsby voted against clean air and clean energy the vast majority of the time, earning a grade of F in the [www.tlcv.org Texas League of Conservation Voters' 2007 Legislative Scorecard].  

Specifically, in 13 particular votes last session, Rep. Goolsby voted against clean air and clean energy 10 times (and in the remaining 3 votes, 2 were consensus measures that passed the House unanimously).  Moreover, when you look at all of the votes with environmental impacts cast last session, Rep. Goolsby's voting record is an abysmal 30%.

Representative Goolsby may say he is for 'fresh clean air,' but his voting record is among the worst of any House member when it comes to supporting clean air legislation.  The real clean air candidate for District 102 is Carol Kent.  TLCV-PAC endorsed Carol Kent for District 102 over Rep. Goolsby.

The votes below the fold...