They Used to Call It Train Wreck

As Tom Lehrer used to sing, "Don't drink the water, and don't breathe the air."

Yesterday, supposed state protectors of Texas air, soil, and water, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, signed the paperwork to approve the air-quality permit for the euphemistically named Oak Grove power plant. This further smooths the road for TXU Power to construct the two coal-burning generator units, producing an estimated 1,600 megawatts two counties east of Travis in Robertson.

"We welcome TCEQ's permit approval," said TXU Power in a press release this morning. That's the second least surprising event of the week – the first being that TCEQ approved the plan. After TXU dropped its planned coal plant expansion from 11 to three, it was all virtually on the nod. That said, some within the renewable energy industry have speculated that they never planned to build 11, and it was always a bluff to make the lower number sounds like a concession.

TXU says they'll make this nitrogen-oxide-, sulfur-dioxide-, and mercury-neutral by reducing emissions from other sites. Not that there'll be a reduction, and the term "carbon dioxide" doesn't appear, but it's still a step … sideways, right?

This all comes in the wake of a widely reported Associated Press study that Texas leads the nation in coal-related pollution and greenhouse gases.