Residents in rural parts of East and Central Texas can breathe a little easier.
State data shows that the closure of three coal-burning power plants in late 2017 kept more than 150,000 tons of dangerous, smog-forming air pollutants from entering the atmosphere in the following year. One environmental advocate called the change a “vindication” of years of advocacy work to bring public attention to industrial pollution.
In January, the Texas Commission on Environment Quality (TCEQ) released its annual Point Source Emissions Inventory for 2018, an accounting of legal air pollution emitted by coal-burning power plants, refineries, chemical manufacturers, and other polluters. The report showed that Texas polluters emitted 152,000 fewer tons of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants in 2018 than 2017. Adrian Shelley, the executive director of Public Citizen’s Texas chapter, analyzed the data and attributes the reductions to the closure of three plants owned by the coal mining company Luminant: Big Brown in Fairfield, southeast of Dallas; Monticello in Mount Pleasant, east of Dallas; and Sandow in Rockdale, east of Austin.
