TXU Giant Coal Power Plan Would Foul Dallas - Fort Worth Area's Air - Star-Telegram

[hatrack]

Pollution created by new power plants planned for East and Central Texas will harm Dallas-Fort Worth’s air quality and probably put Waco and Austin in violation of federal clean-air laws for the first time. Those were the conclusions in a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. The study, released Friday, is billed by power plant opponents as the most comprehensive analysis yet of the pollution that would be created by building as many as 16 new power plants.

It’s also the first to demonstrate that Waco and Austin, and even the Tyler-Longview area 150 miles southeast of Fort Worth, could be dramatically affected by the power plants’ pollution.

Led by David Allen, an air pollution expert who heads UT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, the study bolsters arguments by elected leaders, residents and clean-air activists that the new power plants will doom Dallas-Fort Worth, and perhaps much of Central Texas, to years of dirty air. “This gives us finally what we have been waiting for a long time, which is the evidence to present to the state of Texas about why we cannot afford to build all these coal plants,” said Dallas Mayor Laura Miller during a news conference Friday.

But energy industry representatives ripped the study, claiming it’s not objective. They note that the study was commissioned by the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition, a group led by Miller and Houston Mayor Bill White that is fighting the new plants.

EDIT

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/16672651.htm

[kestrel91316]

1. If TX wants to destroy their own air quality with a bunch of

coal-fired plants, I say let them. Maybe that's what it will take to get them to WAKE THE HELL UP!