Some mayors from various Texas cities have formed an ad hoc group, “Texas Cities for Climate Protection,” to provide input to the state’s Commission on Environmental Quality, which is individually reviewing 17 separate proposals for new coal-fired generation plants in the state. Arlington’s mayor held a formation meeting for the group earlier in the month at the University of Texas — Arlington, and subsequently Dallas Mayor Laura Miller sent a letter to all the mayors in the state urging their support.

Miller said the ad hoc group is seeking a group of at least 40 cities that each would provide $10,000 in support for a joint intervention. Houston’s Mayor Bill White has agreed to help with this organizing effort, she said. They are looking for the cities’ commitments by the end of July.

Based on a one-page briefing paper the mayors’ developed, there are concerns that the state environmental panel is not addressing the cumulative impact of the coal generation plant proposals, and the state’s standard of “Best Available Control Technology (BACT)” is not clear or precise.

Miller asked her fellow mayors to intervene collectively with the environmental commission in the next 90 days when the panel opens the permitting process to a second round of public comment. (Dallas provided comments in the first phase, but it did not formally intervene in the case at that time, Miller said.)

Noting that the mayors’ ad hoc group is not recommending the state deny the permits at this time, Miller stressed to her colleagues that intervention requires that the city elected officials provide the state commission with “thoughtful alternatives, expert testimony, and sworn depositions of fact.” She suggested this be done with the help of consultants at an estimated cost of up to $500,000.

Miller indicated in her letter to the mayors that the collective intervention could lead to getting the commission to require some of the plants, most of which are slated for East Texas, to apply environmentally cleaner technologies. “We will also be organized, statewide, for the first time on environmental issues — and ready to speak with one voice in the next battle, no matter where it is in Texas,” Miller said.

Miller cited several environmental facts about Texas, such as it has no proposed integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) coal plant proposal even though there are 17 currently among the 124 proposed new coal generation plants nationally. In addition, she said Texas power plants “emit more pollution than chemical and refining plants combined,” and they account for a full 10% of the mercury emissions nationally.

In addition to the cities’ intervention with the environmental panel, a national State Implementation Plan (SIP) process on air pollution also could be used for addressing the Texas cities’ clean air concerns, the mayors’ briefing paper noted. “Specifically, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee is working on developing the SIP for this region. Involvement at the meetings and throughout the SIP development process is another way to voice the concerns of cities throughout Texas.”

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