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Notice of Intent to File Federal Lawsuit
Sent to TXU
SEPTEMBER 30, 2006
The Board of Our Land, Our Lives voted on September 13th to join in federal lawsuits against TXU, the EPA, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
A letter was sent this Friday [September 29th] to TXU putting them on notice that if the violations listed in the letter are not fixed within 60 days, a lawsuit will be filed. The specified violations include:
- insufficient Best Available Control Technology (BACT) analysis,
- failure to consider fuel blending,
- failure to consider Coal Gasification (IGCC),
- failure to consider health impacts from the plant's emissions,
- and a long list of other problems with the permit itself and with TCEQ's permitting process.
The lawsuit was initiated by an organization out of Dallas called cleanCOALition. They retained the attorney, and will pay for the case. They approached us because we are the folks most affected by the plant. They have insured us that their philosophy matches ours, they are not against constructing the plant, but want to insure that what gets built is done according to the law and is protective of citizens' health. They also realize that the only way to deal with shortcomings in the permitting process, particularly the issues of gasification and enforcing the federal rule that new plants must show they will not harm air quality in "non-attainment" areas like Dallas and Houston, is to force the courts to rule on the legality of the current procedures. They, and we, intend to press the case to resolve these issues and establish appropriate standards.
This is a significant step for a small group like ours. There is the possibility of injunctions prohibiting TXU from proceeding until the case is resolved. And this is the type of case, unlike our contested hearing through the State, that can take a couple of years to work through the courts. We did not make the decision lightly.
We considered the following facts in making our decision:
- We have played by the rules. We contested the permit and the State Office of Administrative Hearings Judges ruled to deny the permit as proposed. The commissioners at TCEQ seem clearly poised to overrule the judge's decision, not based on facts or the public interest, but based on TXU-promoted misinformation and plain old palm greasing political influence (more about this later).
- The State Judges refused to hear any testimony on coal gasification, grounds, in our opinion, for appealing their non-ruling on this issue.
- The goals of the proposed lawsuit match our position on the plant.
- In selling the plant to our community and our political leaders TXU has consistently misrepresented the facts if not outright lied.
They have said we must have their new plants to avoid "California style rolling blackouts". There is a need for some additional generation in the next few years, but there are better, cleaner, and even cheaper ways to meet a short-term need than building eleven coal boilers that will pollute for 50 years, using the dirtiest available technology.
They have said their plants will reduce electric bills for consumers when not one nickel of the profit they will make from selling cheaper coal-generated electricity into the electric grid will go to customers.
They propose a 20 percent voluntary reduction scheme to justify the new plants when all or most of the reductions are required by EPA rules (we can't tell if any of the reductions would be voluntary because almost six months after announcing the plan, they still won't disclose any details - if they are not lying, why won't they answer simple questions about the plan?).
- TXU refuses to engage in discussions about the scientific studies on which we base our claims that pollution from these plants will harm the health of local citizens, particularly infants, unborn babies of pregnant women, the old, and those with existing respiratory and heart problems.
- A recent statewide air modeling study states that Robertson County "consistently had the largest ozone impacts from proposed new Electric Generating Units." It also indicates that parts of our county could become ozone non-attainment areas based only on emissions from the Oak Grove plant and two previously permitted plants. And the TCEQ apparently still wants to approve the permit rejected by the Hearing Judges.
We discussed the pending law suit at our last meeting and all in attendance were in favor of it. If you would like more information, or have concerns about this decision, I encourage you to attend our next meeting on October 14th at 10:00 am. at Ama's restaurant in Franklin (in the meeting room at the back).
Paul Rolke,
President
Robertson County Our Land, Our Lives
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