Our Vision
Put all coal ash in watertight non-corrosive containers, and move towards renewable energy, without leaving plant employees behind.
Stop Poisoning Central Texas
Put all coal ash in water tight non-corrosive bins daily. Clean all toxins from the water, air, and soil.
Transition to Solar
Reuse of the site for solar energy generation. As the energy by solar increases, the energy created by coal decreases.
Guarantee Jobs
All Fayette Coal Plant displaced employees are guaranteed jobs with LCRA or City of Austin, paying at least the same salary and benefits. The workers should not pay for the bad behavior of LCRA and Austin Energy.
Stop Poisoning Central Texas
350 has been working for 5 years to try to move LCRA and Austin Energy. Since March 2020, we have been meeting individually with Austin City Council Members to encourage Austin City Council to push Austin Energy
Austin Energy lawyers are building a myth of lies and deceptions about the Fayette Coal Plant (Fayette Power Project, FPP). Austin Energy has gone to great lengths to avoid assuming any responsibility for the daily production of poisonous coal ash that contains mercury, lead, arsenic, and chromium.
Austin Energy lawyers know that the FPP is co-owned by Austin and LCRA. The City of Austin owns 50% of the land and 33% of the turbines.
Austin Energy's response to our vision for stopping the poisoning of Central Texas
| Austin Energy says | Their plan is to “exit its share of the coal-fired the Fayette Power Project (FPP).” |
| 350 Austin says | “Exiting” the Fayette Power Project (FPP) does not stop the atmospheric poisoning that worsens climate change. “Exiting” the plant does not stop the mercury, lead, arsenic, and chromium from leaching into the water table every day. |
| Austin Energy says | Governor Abbott’s Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) manages all environmental compliance at the FPP, so Austin cannot do anything. |
| 350 Austin says | As the co-owner, the City of Austin can expose LCRA’s poisoning of Central Texas. Austin makes up over one half of the population LCRA serves, and they can make a difference by raising a public outcry to LCRA. |
| Austin Energy says | The FPP is in compliance with all applicable state and federal environmental requirements. |
| 350 Austin says | The FPP has been totally deregulated. LCRA has no state regulations, and is not subject to federal regulations.1,2 The EPA is in the process of giving Texas the right to regulate itself. 3 Austin should raise a strong voice against this lack of environmental regulation. |
| Austin Energy says | Repeated tests have not indicated that the groundwater at FPP poses a public risk. |
| 350 Austin says | No tests for lead are performed by LCRA in Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis County. Governor Abbott had the State Health Division turn over responsibility for environmental testing to LCRA. Austin Energy lawyers know that testing for toxic pollutants has not been conducted near the FPP since 2018.4 In 2018, dangerously high concentrations of pollutants were found.5,6 |
| Austin Energy says | Coal ash is either recycled or stored on site consistent with current regulations. |
| 350 Austin says | There are no regulations. The coal ash is put in 48 feet deep pits that leach mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium and other poisons into the groundwater.7 |
| Austin Energy says | The groundwater is closely monitored by environmental groups. |
| 350 Austin says | There is no groundwater monitoring by environmental groups, and all groundwater testing at the site is handled by LCRA. Looking at their reports, you will see no levels of lead because they are not testing for lead, and you will see dangerously high levels of other poisons.5,6 |
| Austin Energy says | The Environmental Integrity Project monitors the water table. |
| 350 Austin says | The Environmental Integrity Project says that all Texas Coal Power plants have coal ash disposal sites that are leaking contaminants, according to data analyzed in 2019.5 Austin Energy is lying and they know it. |
| Austin Energy says | Regulations allow recycling/reuse of coal ash. |
| 350 Austin says | There are no regulations, and coal ash is being used by Fayette contractors in asphalt. The asphalt is then used to fill potholes in Central Texas, which poisons more water. |
Sources
- https://www.epa.gov/coalash/coal-ash-rule
- https://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Letter-to-U.S.-House-Protesting-Trump-EPA-Threats-against-CA.pdf
- https://www.epa.gov/coalash/us-state-texas-coal-combustion-residuals-ccr-permit-program
- https://www.lcra.org/energy/electric-power/facilities/fayette-power-project/
- https://environmentalintegrity.org/reports/groundwater-contamination-from-texas-coal-ash-dumps/
- https://www.lcra.org/download/2016-fpp-cbl-annual-inspection-report-v001-01-15-16-final-pdf/?wpdmdl=11959
- httpcra.org/download/2018-fpp-cbl-ccr-annual-groundwater-report-and-data-pdf/?wpdmdl=11977
The Potential of Solar and Wind Power
According to Texas Renewables
- Wind and solar reduced wholesale electricity market costs between $350M to $960M per year out of the total energy dispatch cost of about $10 – $13B per year. From 2010-2017, wind and solar saved consumers $5.7 billion.
- If there had not been any renewables on the ERCOT grid, power plants would have withdrawn between 300 and 700 billion gallons more water per year. Water withdrawals refer to water that used by a power plant for cooling, but returned to the source. For reference, 700 billion gallons is the annual use of about 783,000 Texans.
- The availability of large-scale renewable energy increasingly is a factor in corporate relocation and expansion, especially for modern-economy industries that rely heavily on high volumes of reliable electric supply with stable long term-prices.
- Texas produces the highest amount of wind power than any other state
