Greening Austin Daily

Sierra Club Appeals Coal Plant Permits Granted by TCEQ

19th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Statesman has an article today about the Sierra Club appealing 4 coal plant permits granted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), stating that TCEQ did not allow public comment as they should have, or require a technical report.  Here’s part of the article:

The environmental group [Sierra Club] is appealing permit amendments approved Dec. 16 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that allow increased emissions from the plants, in East and Central Texas, during periods of planned startup, shutdown and maintenance.

The issuance of the permits is “invalid, arbitrary and unreasonable,” according to the lawsuit filed in state District Court in Travis County.

The lawsuit comes as coal plants across the state apply for permit amendments for emissions produced during startup, shutdown and maintenance, which were not previously regulated, said Ilan Levin, an environmental attorney representing the Sierra Club.

Environment commission spokesman Terry Clawson said the agency has not received the lawsuit and will not comment on it, but he said the four permits questioned in the lawsuit were issued legally.

Coal plant operators were required to apply for the amendments to authorize increased emissions by Jan. 5, 2011 . The four plants involved in the suit, all owned by the state’s largest generator, Dallas-based Luminant Generation Co., applied for higher emission ceilings and were approved in December.

“We were surprised to find out that, really, just by trolling the agency’s website, that right before the holidays, the TCEQ had issued these permits to Luminant without any public notice or any sort of opportunity at all to file some formal comments,” Levin said.

Levin said more plants could still be getting permits without going through public review and that he and the Sierra Club will look for other plants getting similar treatment.

Not all power plants seeking changes to air pollution permits are required to go through a public process, Levin said, but these permits are for a large enough increase that public notice is required.

The four plants would be allowed to emit at least 11,206 tons of additional particulate matter, a pollutant linked to heart attacks and premature death, the suit said.

The application for the plant northeast of Austin near Rockdale authorizes 958 additional tons of particulate matter, more than a sixfold increase over current startup, shutdown and maintenance limits, according to the lawsuit. That would more than double the plant’s 2010 particulate emissions, according to state data.

The lawsuit also says the environment commission “failed to conduct a Best Available Control Technology analysis,” which pushes plant operators to adopt cleaner — and often costlier — processes and equipment.

You can read the whole article here.