New Pollution Rules for Coal-Crazed Texas

Taking a small but significant step toward ending Texas' reign as the nation's No. 1 power-plant emitter of toxic mercury and heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution, not to mention the country's No. 4 emitter of sulfur and nitrogen oxide, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took up two federal EPA air quality measures at its meeting last Wednesday: the Clean Air Interstate Rule and the Clean Air Mercury Rule. Both are designed to create control measures and enforcement mechanisms to reduce air pollutants; in HB 2481, the Texas Legislature in 2005 agreed to adopt the rules statewide, taking aim at coal-burning power plants. Texas has five of the nation's 10 worst-polluting power plants – including No. 1, TXU's Monticello coal plant – and there are a staggering seven new plants in the works.

The concern within the environmental community was that the TCEQ would go no further than EPA rules in cleaning up Texas' air – if the commission even went that far. Environmental advocates Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas Office, and Karen Hadden, executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, were on hand to demand that TCEQ commissioners use the authority granted to them by the Texas Legislature within HB 2481 to go above and beyond the initial rules, said to be capable of modest improvements at best for East Texas and Dallas-Fort Worth, and to "significantly lower the air pollution that makes air unsafe to breathe and leads to asthma attacks and respiratory illness," as Smith said. In the end, Commissioner Larry Soward moved to have the rules published in the Texas Register, the journal of state-agency rulemaking for Texas, and to hold hearings to get public input in Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth on April 11, 12, and 13, respectively. Commissioner Ralph Marquez spoke to the duo's concerns, emphasizing that Texas has explicit authority to go beyond the Clean Air rules to clean up the air. Hadden and Smith called the outcome better than anticipated.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Marquez said, "I do believe that Texas will meet reductions that may very well go beyond what federal rules call for." As an example of possible target areas, he cited coal power plants in East Texas, and plants south and southeast of Dallas, to bring Dallas into compliance with ozone standards. "We have very clean power plants already," said Marquez, referring to a measure of emissions compared to the amount of fuel used. He blamed Texas' air-quality woes on the huge amount of energy used and our vast number of power plants. He agreed that mercury pollution is a serious problem, but said that just how much of it can be reduced, and whether it's coming from here or from somewhere else, is debatable.

He could certainly have that debate with Hadden, who cited EPA figures that "one in six women of child-bearing age has high enough levels of mercury in her bloodstream that her developing child could be at risk of learning disabilities and permanent brain damage," a statistic she attributed directly to the unchecked emissions of coal power plants. "Effective mercury controls are proven and available," she said; Pennsylvania, the nation's No. 2 Mercury emitter, has a plan to reduce 80% of its mercury emissions by 2010. Hadden recommends a 90% reduction for Texas.

Smith and Hadden both expressed concern over the seven proposed new Texas coal plants and the potential increase of 2,686 pounds per year of mercury statewide. They take specific issue with TXU's proposed new Oak Grove plant, which will replace the utility's Monticello coal-burner as the nation's worst mercury polluter on its first day of use, expected to belch 1,456 pounds of mercury per year by itself. "This isn't clean coal," Hadden said, "This is as dirty as it gets." Smith bluntly said, "We don't need these plants, energy efficiency could easily supply this energy at a much lower cost."

The public meeting for the CAIR and CAMR rules will be held at the TCEQ Park 35 complex in Austin on April 11. For more information, see www.tceq.org, www.seedcoalition.org, and www.stopthecoalplant.org.