By Axel Gerdau for PowerSmack.org
For 30 years Austin has been running on the world’s dirtiest fuel – and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Administrators at Austin Energy want to continue our dependence on coal power. If City Council and Mayor Lee Leffingwell accept the utility’s “Recommendation for the Resource and Climate Protection Plan” electricity from coal will remain an integral part of our energy mix at least until 2020. The result: The City of Austin will not only continue to emit high levels of greenhouse gases and thus exacerbate climate change but also contribute to increasing levels of respiratory illnesses such as a asthma – a huge burden on our local economy. Meanwhile cities like Los Angeles are getting out of the coal power business and even Austin Energy’s own consultants are saying divesting the utility’s coal plant is feasible without increasing electricity costs significantly.
So why are we hanging on to coal power?
Both the impact of coal on climate change and the threat that climate change presents to the State of Texas are well documented. Power production from coal is the largest contributor to the human-made increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, and accelerated global warming increases the risk of devastating droughts and crop losses, hotter summers and higher energy costs, in-migration of tropical diseases and more frequent extreme weather events in Texas. That’s why the City of Austin instituted the Austin Climate Protection Program, which aims to “make Austin the leading city in the nation in the fight against climate change.” How Austin’s continued reliance on coal power, which Austin Energy is now recommending, fits into this plan, is unclear.
At the same time, medical experts are seeing an alarming connection between power plant pollution, death and disease – a connection that has been tragically ignored by policy makers in the past. Austin’s own Lisa Doggett, a doctor with Physicians for Social Responsibility, says: “Nearly 24,000 deaths each year are linked to fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants. That’s more deaths from pollution than from drunk driving and more deaths from pollution than from murders.” The numbers for Texas are just as staggering. Our state currently burns 10 percent of all the coal in the U.S. This is estimated to cause 1160 premature deaths; 1791heart attacks; 144 lung cancer deaths; 33,987 asthma attacks; 1798 ER visits; and 1105 hospitalizations annually. According to Physicians for Social Responsibility, children and pregnant woman are facing some of the greatest risks.
In order to dramatically reduce these costs to society, the City of Los Angeles is planning to replace all of its electricity from coal with cleaner, renewable energy by 2020. And consultants hired by Austin Energy say, our city could do the same thing. PACE experts calculated that if Austin shut down its share of the Fayette Power Project over the next 12 years and replaced it with energy efficiency measures and a cost-effective mix of renewable energy sources, the real cost of generating electricity would increase by a mere 2 percentage points (in comparison to a model, which largely resembles Austin Energy’s current proposal). At the same time, the utility’s C02 emissions would be reduced by 62 percent under 2005 levels, NOx emissions would be lowered by as much as 68 percent, SO2 by up to 99 percent, and mercury by nearly 100 percent.
PowerSmack is advocating for a stronger public debate on the decision of our energy future, which will shape up to $18 billion (nominal dollars) in public spending over the next twelve years – the biggest investment in the history of our city. Policy makers and stakeholders should consider the economic costs associated with our continued dependence on coal that go beyond the cost of electricity. And all of us must remember that new cost-competitive alternatives to coal power exist today. They allow us meet our energy needs and help us achieve our goal of making Austin the most livable city in the country.
