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Archive for October 15th, 2010

TCEQ Status Update on Las Brisas Application an Effort to “Fast-Track” the SOAH process

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , on October 15, 2010 |

This morning at a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) hearing, Las Brisas Energy Center attempted to try to move their permitting process along by asking the commissioners to intervene in the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) process, but the SOAH Admininistrative Law Judges (ALJs) informed the TCEQ that changes to their process would not be prudent.

Vimeo

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Both Commissioner Garcia and Chairman Shaw are shown here asking the administrative law judges who presided over the contested case hearing for the proposed Las Brisas coal (pet-coke) plant to speed the process along. The main reason for this is likely that the EPA’s new CO2 rules take effect on January 2nd of next year – and they don’t want to have to make the coal plant owners meet these new standards. Once again it is clear that the sole interest of these Governor-appointed commissioners is the financial interests of the applicants (coal plant owners, etc.) and not the health and well being of the people of Texas and their environment.

To watch the entire TCEQ video of the hearing (second item on the agenda), click here.

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Stop Tarsands Oil Pipeline

Posted in Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged , , , , on October 15, 2010 |

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QotpWw6AmFA]STOP is a coalition of landowners in Oklahoma and Texas who have united to voice their opposition to the proposed Keystone tar sands oil pipeline. These landowners oppose this pipeline for a variety of reasons but they share a concern of how this pipeline will affect their own and their children’s future.

John Tutor fears the impact of soiling a local preserve that boasts black bears and songbirds for scout groups and the Audubon Society; others, the addition of more especially dirty oil to the global energy market rather than clean technologies that don’t destroy tracts of land thousands of square miles in scope. Many of these citizens have received notices threatening the use of eminent domain.

In a previous post you can see the Thorntons’ talk about how Keystone has sent them multiple notices with an initial offer of about $2,200 per acre. This is about 20% of what they value the land they had hoped to develop. Keystone is using eminent domain to force landowners to sell their land at low prices. STOP is an organization for those people who would not like to see this dangerous and dirty pipeline cross through their land. David Daniel and Betty S Vaughn Scott don’t want the generations following them to lose claim to pristine Texas forest in exchange for a dirty pipeline and the inherent risk that comes with piping hundreds of thousands of toxic material at high pressure every day.

This pipeline is different from all the other pipelines. This pipeline will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil that has a carbon footprint of over 3 times that of conventional oil. Tar sands oil extraction has already destroyed vast amounts of land in Alberta and it is set to become an area the size of Florida. We can’t let it endanger Texas’ forests either. If this pipeline has affected you or if you are just a concerned citizen in the area of the pipeline STOP can help you raise your voice in opposition to this pipeline.

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