For a copy of the report, click here. For an online data map, click here. For audio of the online press conference, click here.
AUSTIN, TEXAS – A wave of 130 natural gas power plant projects in the Lone Star State, proposed in part to feed the artificial intelligence boom, could release as much greenhouse gas pollution as 27 million cars and trucks driving for a year, according to a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project.
The report also reveals that Texas has illegally rubber-stamped permits for the construction of at least three large power plants – and potentially others — without the stringent air pollution limits or public hearings required under the federal Clean Air Act.
Among the proposed gas generators are at least 108 new power plants, 17 expansions, and five projects for which specifics have not yet been announced. Many of the projects are seeking state taxpayer dollars through the Texas Energy Fund, which has set aside billions of dollars for new gas power plants. These new plants could contribute many tons of health-damaging pollutants to neighborhoods, including around Houston, that are already failing federal standards for smog, and may be in violation of new standards for particulate matter, according to EIP’s report.
“To meet its increasing demand for electricity, Texas should be encouraging more clean energy instead of feeding public subsidies to dirty fossil fuels,” said Jen Duggan, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project. “Texas must also immediately stop issuing illegal permits in the shadows without the stringent air pollution limits that are required by the Clean Air Act.”
Dave Cortez, Director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, said: “Polluters and politicians sold Texans on the Texas Energy Fund as a solution to grid reliability. Instead, we got a taxpayer-funded blank check for wealthy energy corporations to pollute our air and avoid basic pollution protections. If the state wants to prop up these dirty power plants, we’ll be here every step of the way to hold them accountable to the Clean Air Act.”
Jennifer Hadayia, Executive Director of Air Alliance Houston, said. “Houston is already one of the most polluted cities in the country, exceedingly vulnerable to the extreme heat and weather events that come with fossil-fuel-caused climate change. This new report shows that, once again, our state is reluctant to hold polluters accountable, and is instead allowing more permitting loopholes, which will ultimately result in more pollution and greater climate risk.”
Adrian Shelley, Texas Director of Public Citizen, said: “Everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas, but there’s no need to go big with gas plant pollution when there are cleaner alternatives. Texas is already number one in clean energy, which helps save the electric grid and reduce consumer costs, so we should rely on clean energy to increase our supply of electricity.”
On April 28, EIP and the Sierra Club sent a letter to EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) demanding an end to TCEQ’s illegal issuance of permits for major sources of air pollution that lack the stringent limits on emissions required by the Clean Air Act. The letter and EIP’s new report cite three examples of illegally permitted plants, two near Houston and one near Corpus Christi (list below.)
The EIP report includes a detailed inventory of all 130 gas-fired powered power plant projects proposed so far in Texas, including many around Houston, Austin, and Beaumont. If all 130 of these plants are built, EIP estimates they could release 115 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, including 1,291 metric tons of methane, which has a warming potential 28 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Of this total increase from Texas, around 110 million metric tons of greenhouse gases would come from the power plants themselves, while about5 million metric tons would come from associated natural gas drilling and fracking, processing, and transportation. In total, all these projects could increase Texas’ greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent over 2021 levels.
In addition to planet-warming greenhouse gases, the new natural gas power plants would emit other harmful air pollution – including smog-forming nitrogen oxides and particulate matter — that could degrade local air quality in communities across Texas.
Based on potential emissions information disclosed for 45 of the proposed power plants, these plants could emit thousands of tons of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds, and hundreds of tons of hazardous air pollutants. Of the 54 proposed gas power plants with detailed location information, 14 would be built in areas that already have unhealthy levels of smog (ground-level ozone) and were identified in a preliminary analysis by EPA as having unhealthy levels of particulate matter (soot).
The EIP report makes the argument that Texas could choose a cleaner path to increase its electricity generation, including by subsidizing more solar and wind power and large-scale battery storage units, instead of using taxpayer dollars to support energy from fossil fuels. The state is also endangering the health of its own residents by failing to require adequate air pollution limits in the permits issued to at least three gas-fired power plants.
The following three large proposed power plants, identified in EIP’s report and letter to EPA and TCEQ, were improperly permitted by Texas as “minor” sources of air pollution, but are, in reality major sources of pollution that, under the requirements of the Clean Air Act, must meet more stringent limits for air pollution:
- In the south Texas town of Robstown, in Nueces County near Corpus Christi, ENGIE Flexible Generation NA LLC is proposing to build three gas‐fired turbines with a total capacity of 930 megawatts (MW).
- West of Houston, in the Austin County community of Sealy, EmberYork Energy Center LLC is planning to build two gas-fired turbines with a combined capacity of 900 MW.
- Southwest of Houston, in Wharton, Texas, EmberGreen Energy Center LLC is planning to build two gas-fired turbines, also with a combined capacity of 900 MW.
For a copy of EIP’s report, click here. For an online map, click here; and for copy of the inventory of projects, click here. For the letter that EIP and Sierra Club sent to EPA and TCEQ to complain about the permitting problem, click here.
Media contact: Tom Pelton (443) 510-2574 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
The Environmental Integrity Project is America’s environmental watchdog. We hold polluters and governments accountable to protect public health and the environment.
