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New Texas Coal Plants Could Be Grandfathered Under Climate Bill

Posted on: Monday, 21 September 2009, 12:34 CDT

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New Texas coal plants could escape the performance standards and carbon dioxide restrictions of a federal climate bill, says Public Citizen Texas. Eleven coal plants that are pending, permitted, or under construction in Texas could be grandfathered under the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) currently awaiting action in the Senate.

The ACES bill contains tough performance standards for new coal plants that would require them to capture and store at least 50% of their carbon dioxide by 2025, but the current bill allows any plant currently being constructed or those recently permitted to escape those regulations. Statewide, this could lead to the release of 38.5 million tons of carbon dioxide a year that would have been avoided if these plants were subject to the new performance standards.

"Grandfathering is bad enough, but to grandfather a plant that hasn't even been built yet is beyond the pale. These are new power plants, and they should have to include new technology to meet the new standards," said Ryan Rittenhouse, Coal Block organizer for Public Citizen Texas. "If construction on these plants had begun just a few years later, they would have been subject to the new standards. Why should these new coal plants receive special treatment?"

This isn't the first time that a wave of coal plants has escaped federal regulation through grandfathering. The Clean Air Act, which was amended in 1977, exempted existing coal plants from emissions standards. As a result, a third of the coal plants in Texas emitted more than they would have under regulation until 2003, when the loophole was closed. As a result, an entire generation of Texans was subjected to pollution and dirty air that would have been avoided had the plants not been grandfathered.

"With the climate bill, Congress has acknowledged that global warming is a serious problem that warrants a national solution," said Rittenhouse. "But by allowing the grandfathering of coal plants, they're just adding fuel to the fire. Texas Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison should do their part to protect future generations and not allow any grandfathering provisions in the Senate version of the climate bill."

Public Citizen launched a statewide coal plant tour this week to bring attention to the grandfathering threat. They will be stopping in Waco, Dallas, Abilene, Corpus Christi, Bay City, Houston, and College Station over the course of the next two weeks.

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., with an office in Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.

SOURCE Public Citizen

Source: PR Newswire

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