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Demonstrators support proposed EPA ruling
Published October 1, 2009
BAY CITY — Holding signs with phrases such as “Coal isn’t cool,” “Mercury Free Fish” and “TCEQ, Protect Matagorda Bay!” protesters gathered at the Matagorda County Courthouse to voice their opposition to the planned White Stallion Energy Center.
Other protesters Tuesday held high signs depicting a horse with a pile of manure underneath it. The horse was tethered to a sign reading “White Stallion,” and the manure featured the words “Clean Energy, what a bunch of crap!”
The White Stallion plant would generate energy using petcoke, a solid carbon substance that remains after the distillation of hydrocarbons in petroleum, in what is considered a clean coal technology.
Protesters also supported a recent Environmental Protection Agency report saying it won’t approve portions of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality air pollution permitting program that do not meet the federal Clean Air Act.
“TCEQ failed to look at the cumulative impacts of new coal plants, and they ignored the
significant deterioration of air quality that recently permitted coal plants will cause if built,” Public Citizen spokesman Ryan Rittenhouse said during the protest. “We are asking EPA to step in and make sure no coal permits issued under TCEQ’s permitting process should be allowed to proceed forward.”
BUCKING STALLION
White Stallion Energy Center, which would produce enough electricity to supply 650,000 homes in the South Texas Region, is proposed to be built on a 1,200-acre tract a mile south of the Port of Bay City between FM 2668 and the Lower Colorado River.
According to the plant’s Web site, whitestallionenergycenter.com, the development phase is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with the four- to five-year construction period to begin in early 2010.
An e-mail to White Stallion Energy Center representatives was not returned Wednesday, but the company’s Web site states the station would use the “most environmentally advanced, cleanest, commercially proven emission lowering technology available.”
The plant’s design would remove sulfur dioxide and prevent much of the nitrogen oxides from being expelled. The two chemicals are present in smog and acid rain, and both can cause lung disease, according to the EPA Web site, www.epa.gov.
“Mercury and particulate emissions are captured by ‘bag houses’ and by other new technology unavailable on older Texas power plants,” according to the site. “The project will be fueled by petcoke, a byproduct of oil refining produced in the region in a blend with high quality bituminous coal imported into Texas.”
Michelle Weathers, 27, who was among the protesters Tuesday, said she couldn’t teach children energy conservation and environmental awareness as a science teacher and then support a plant she believes would pollute as it produces energy.
“That’s not fair to say ‘let’s do our part’ and then bring a polluter into our area that’s going to consume water, for one thing,” Weathers said. “But then when it uses the water and puts it back into the river, or into the canals or wherever it’s going to go, it’s going to be polluted.”
Bay City resident James Arnold, 69, said a lack of fresh water already is a problem in the region, and the plant would pollute the water with mercury and the air with extra carbon dioxide.
“We’re looking at our water, our birds, our beaches and the bird habitat, public health, our air, traffic and we’re looking at the future,” Arnold said.
EPA VERSUS TCEQ
The EPA released a statement Sept. 8 stating its disapproval of “key aspects of the Texas clean-air permitting program that do not meet federal Clean Air Act requirements followed by other states.”
The permitting system allows businesses to exceed emission limits in certain areas as long as they stay within overall limits, EPA Chief of Air Permitting Jeff Robinson has said.
The EPA also plans to decline rules allowing businesses to make changes at facilities without a lengthy permitting process that would require public hearings.
The White Stallion Energy Center is one of 11 coal plants proposed, permitted or under construction in Texas, Rittenhouse said.
Currently, White Stallion Energy Center’s air quality permit is entering its fifth month in the permitting process, which ends Feb. 18, according to a permit schedule provided by TCEQ.
Until the EPA comes up with a ruling on TCEQ’s permitting process, no changes will be made, TCEQ spokeswoman Lisa Wheeler said.
“At this point they’re taking public comments, so until we know what the changes will be, we don’t know how it will affect the permitting process,” Wheeler said.
The EPA currently is accepting public comments on the proposed ruling that portions of the TCEQ air permitting process does not adhere to the Clean Air Act. For information on how to comment, visit www.sierraclub.org, www.citizen.org or www.epa.gov.
Erin McKeon is a reporter for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0152.
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