Local News: Sierra Club and Public Citizen Pressure Luminant to Lower Emissions

Environmental Groups, Corporation Strike Deal over Central Texas Coal Plant
By J.B. Smith (Tribune-Herald Staff Writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

A settlement between Luminant and environmentalists could result in reduced mercury emissions from the Oak Grove coal-fired power plant 45 miles southeast of Waco.

The Sierra Club and Public Citizen had threatened to sue the power company over the two-unit plant in Franklin, which was permitted in summer 2007 and is now under construction.

The environmentalists said the plant did not meet new federal mercury standards. Luminant, the power generation business of Energy Future Holdings, the former TXU Corp., had argued that it was not bound by the new rules because its permit was approved under the old rules.

But last week, the company agreed to meet an emissions standard it had resisted, called the “Maximum Achievable Control Technology,” or else offset those emissions at other Luminant plants in the region. In return, the environmental groups agreed not to sue Luminant over those issues.

Sierra Club attorney Sanjay Narawan said he believes Luminant will have to make some significant operational changes at the plant, including mercury-removal technologies and possibly a different mix of fuel. Oak Grove was designed to burn local lignite, but other area coal plants burn a combination of lignite and cleaner Wyoming coal.

The city of Waco in 2007 opposed TXU’s plan to build Oak Grove and several other coal-fired power plants in the area but dropped its opposition after the company’s new owners scaled back its coal power ambitions. The first phase of Oak Grove is expected to be completed in 2010.

Published on Monday, December 15, 2008