State Agency to Consider Blue Residents’
Request for Hearing on Gas Power Plant
LEXINGTON, TEXAS – A legal challenge by Blue residents to a proposed 1,200-megawatt natural gas power plant in their community will take another step Oct. 22 during a meeting of commissioners of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ).
At that meeting, the three commissioners are scheduled to vote on the residents’ request that a contested case hearing be held over the application for a state air emissions permit by Sandow Lakes Energy (SL Energy Power Plant I LLC).
Travis Brown, spokesman for the Move the Gas Plant group, said he anticipates the commissioners will vote to send the permit application to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for a contested case hearing.
“This gas plant would be one of the largest in Texas,” Brown said. “If built, it will have a monumental negative impact on the quality of life in our rural community.”
Brown said maps in the company’s application for a permit show almost 100 residences located within a mile and half of the proposed plant site.
According to the American Lung Association, air pollution from natural gas power plants can cause respiratory diseases, cardiovascular problems, lung cancer premature death in nearby communities. It can also worsen asthma, especially in children and the elderly, according to the association.
Brown said other local impacts from the proposed plant would include decreased property values and increased noise, lights and traffic in the Blue area.
Sandow Lakes Energy estimates the gas plant would emit 3.9 million tons of greenhouse gases (CO2) each year. That amount of CO2 is equivalent to the annual emissions of 825,262 automobiles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The site of the proposed plant is at the intersection of CR 309 and CR 312 on property owned by Sandow Lakes Ranch.
In a July 24 ruling, the TCEQ executive director determined that the Sandow Lakes Energy permit application “meets the requirements of applicable law.”
Brown said that ruling was no surprise.
“The TCEQ has a history of rubber stamping most applications for air emissions permits,” Brown said. “Just meeting ‘requirements of applicable law’ doesn’t mean air pollution from this gas plant won’t be harmful.”
During a contested case hearing, Brown said Move the Gas Plant will present evidence that the application does not meet all applicable laws and that it contains major flaws and deficiencies.
An administration law judge will hear evidence and then make a recommendation to TCEQ regarding whether an air permit should be issued.
The Blue residents are represented by the Austin public interest environmental law firm of Perales, Allmon & Ice.
Sandow Lakes Energy submitted its application for an air permit in August of 2024 and paid extra application fees to have it “expedited,” Brown said.
“If Move the Gas Plant had not organized and opposed the air emissions permit, then Sandow Lakes Energy likely would have been granted its permit months ago and would probably already be constructing the gas plant,” Brown said.
Brown said he expects the contested case hearing likely would not begin until late this year, at the earliest, and would probably extend into 2026.
Brown noted that the company has for several months been clearing trees and moving dirt at the proposed site. However, the company is prohibited from starting actual construction until it has an air emissions permit.
The TCEQ meeting on Oct 22 will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the commission offices at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. It will be available online. The commissioners will not take any public comment during the meeting.
If the commissioners decide not to allow a contested case hearing, they could vote to approve the permit at the meeting.
Brown said there are economic and other factors that could hinder or stop the gas plant, and the effect of those factors may be augmented by permitting delays inflicted by MTGP.
For example, a surge in demand for natural gas power plants has created a tremendous shortage of turbines and supply chain bottlenecks, Brown said. Turbine manufacturers such as Siemens have said there is a wait time up to eight years for companies to get new turbines.
In Texas, more than 130 new gas power plant projects recently have been launched. But some of those projects already have been scrapped or delayed for many years because of the inability to get turbines.
Last February, the Lee County Commissioners Court passed a resolution that cited negative impacts of the gas plant on the Blue community. The resolution also asked Sandow Lakes Energy to consider moving the site of the gas plant to a
site further within Sandow Lakes Ranch and farther away from residences.
“Our position has always been that it’s wrong to put a huge power plant in Blue when there is a feasible and much less damaging location nearby,” Brown said. “That location is the site of the old Alcoa smelter and coal plants on Sandow Lakes Ranch.”
#####
Great Job LIV & the Team @ League of Independent Voters of Texas Source link for sharing this story.
