Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club

Coal Fired Power Plants are responsible for Texas leading the nation in air pollution from coal.

Another Setback for a Coal-Fired Power Plant in Texas

(Austin)—Plans for a new NRG coal-fired power plant in Limestone County, Texas have been dealt a significant setback. The Texas state administrative law judges (ALJs) conducting the contested permit proceeding over the proposed air pollution control permit for the coal plant have put the proceeding on hold. Their action came in response to a motion filed by attorneys of the Environmental Integrity Project on behalf of Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, and a local citizens group called Robertson County: Our Land, Our Lives. A spokesperson for the Sierra Club called the action by the ALJs “a victory for public health” because it requires the proposed plant operator to do a careful analysis of what pollution controls on the coal plant are necessary to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants before the contested permit proceeding may be resumed.

The proposed coal plant – actually a third unit at an existing coal facility in Limestone County – would generate 800 megawatts of electric power by burning up to 4.3 million tons of coal per year. In doing so, the plant would emit up to an estimated 10 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, which would be a substantial increase in global warming gases. Texas already leads the nation in power plant CO2 emissions, according to data from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If permitted the new NRG Limestone Unit 3 would also emit substantial quantities of mercury and certain other hazardous pollutants into the air.

“Putting the NRG plant permit on hold to analyze more carefully the problems with mercury and other hazardous pollutant emissions from the plant is victory for public health,” said Neil Carman, Clean Air Director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. “Mercury is a neurotoxin associated with developmental and cognitive disorders in babies and increased risk of heart disease in men,” continued Carman. “Mercury in the air rains down into our streams, lakes, and other waters where it poisons the fish and seafood that eventually make their way to our dinner tables. Mercury accumulates in fish and the animals and people who eat them, putting – for example – the unborn children of pregnant mothers and the infants of nursing mothers at risk.”

“Coal-fired power plants are the single largest man-made source of mercury pollution in the United States,” noted Ilan Levin, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, which is representing Sierra Club in the contested case proceeding over the NRG coal plant permit. “The two existing units at the NRG Limestone plant already rank the plant among the nation’s top 10 worst power plant mercury emitters, and addition of a third unit would add significantly to the problems of mercury emissions.”

The state administrative law judges cancelled all pending activities of the contested case proceeding on the NRG air permit, including the hearing (similar to a trial) that was supposed to start in late July. The ALJs agreed with the environmental and citizen groups contesting the NRG permit that the permit was deficient under the federal Clean Air Act in controlling emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants, based on a recent federal court decision striking down an earlier EPA ruling that “maximum available control technology” (MACT) requirements for such emissions from coal plants did not have to be developed.

The order by the state ALJs, issued late last Friday, will allow NRG to file a permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) with the MACT analysis for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. This analysis will be necessary before any permit could be approved. The ALJs have also ordered NRG to file a status report on the application before TCEQ by June 13 of this year.