Texas coal-fired plants concern Oklahoma citizens
DURANT ”” Senator Jay Paul Gumm, and the Citizens Organizing for Resources and Environment, spoke out against the construction of the coal-fired power plant that TXU purposes to build in Fannin County. Experts in several scientific and health fields spoke to approximately 60 people in the Fine Arts Building at Southeastern Oklahoma State University Thursday. They spent time trying to provide more information to the citizens of Oklahoma on global climate change and the pulverized coal-fired power being proposed by TXU.
Speakers included Tim Greeff, a national energy expert; Doug Wood, assistant professor of Biology at SOSU; George Diggs, professor of Biology at Austin College; and Katrina Baecht, legal liaison for CORE. Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Stanley Alluisi, chair of SOSU’s Department of Aviation Management. No representative from TXU attended the discussion.
A Texas state district judge ruled Tuesday that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s executive order to speed the permitting process for 19 proposed plants is not binding, as the state hearing administrators must reconsider environmentalists’ requests for a hearing delay.
Administrative Judge Kerry Sullivan said, ”The process before the State Office of Administrative Hearings would be slowed to provide a bit more time to allow all the parties to fully prepare, have their T’s crossed with response to testimony and that sort of thing.”
Earlier in the week, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality issued a press release where Gumm spoke in defense of the Oklahomans in regard to the future plant.
”Pollution doesn’t stop at the state line, and we as Oklahomans must fight any initiative that would jeopardize the clean air we breathe and the water we drink,” said Gumm whose district is just north of the proposed plant. ”It is irresponsible for our friends in Texas to move forward with no regard to what their actions would do to Oklahoma. There must be a regional solution, not one that simply places the wants of our neighbors to the south at the peril of our citizen’s quality of life. For Texas to haphazardly move forward is not in the best tradition of that great state, nor in the best interest of its citizens or the people of Oklahoma,” he added.
At Thursday’s CORE panel discussion, Gumm said that anytime something is looked at which is supposed to be good for the people of Oklahoma, the cost versus the dividend is looked at first. He said goes beyond simple dollars.
”Here with this plant we don’t get any of the benefits of it. None of the electricity will come to Oklahoma, but we will get a lot of the negative impact of it. That’s why the State of Oklahoma hasn’t been involved from the very beginning,” said Gumm. ”We have to look at this from a regional standpoint. For Texas to do anything less than that is frankly just irresponsible. We want to make sure the future of Oklahoma is not damaged by this plant.”
Gumm said this whole thing brings light to a bigger issue. ”If you’ve been reading the paper lately you have seen proposals for Texas to take millions of gallons of water out of our state for Texas’ purposes. For those of us who believe in building a broader future for Oklahoma, is that Texas is beginning to treat us like a third world country,” said Gumm. ”They want to take the resources out, move the resources some where else, add value to them and then resell them on the open market. They take the water out and sell it somewhere else for a few bucks. That is not a good deal. That is not a good neighbor. We are looking for a regional solution for this.”
Katrina Baecht of Savoy, a spokeswoman for CORE, spoke in detail about Texas’ power plant process and said the next phase is for the corporation’s plan to be the focus of public hearings and comment, in which CORE is only a part. Based on the input of the public, the permit proceeds through a contested hearing process overseen by the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Baecht explained that TXU promised when it announced it wanted to build the 11 plants, that it would reduce mercury pollution statewide by 20 percent. That will not affect this area, she said. She added that TXU has not said how it would achieve these goals.
”Will they sell off a plant?” Baecht said. ”This way they can’t be held accountable for the promise if that plant is not part of the permitting it would be part of the 20-percent reduction.”
Greeff, Wood and Diggs spoke to the crowd in 10 minute sessions, followed by a question and answer session from the audience.
The health and environmental effects of the most detrimental emissions of the coal plants. The first being mercury which contaminates the fish and leads to brain damage in exposed children. Sulphur Dioxide which causes acid rain and breathing impairments. Particulate matter can cause breathing impairments and nitrogen oxide forms smog or ozone.
Diggs discussed the cumulative effects of all 18 plants and the spread of particulates, which are microscopic and lodge in the lungs. He stated that his biggest concern was that the TXU plans will more than double its current CO2 emissions of 54.9 million tons per year.
Diggs said the biggest cause of global climate change is CO2 and the consensus of the world’s best climate scientists is that the world’s climate is seriously changing.
CORE said they will be bringing more panel discussions to the area so residents can have access to information about some of these issues.
Website: www.texomacore.org www.reliabletexaspower.com
www.stopthecoalplant.org
Information from: www.herald-democrat.com
