Texas has a big haze problem. Saharan dust plagues us every year, and soot from agricultural fires can sometimes darken the Austin skyline – but those are only temporary, if recurring nuisances.
The more insidious culprits are the 12 dirtiest coal plants in the state, which together contribute to more sulfur dioxide emissions than all of the sources in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma combined. Texas on its own is responsible for approximately 16% of the total SO2 emissions from the entire U.S. power sector, according to the Sierra Club.
“This isn’t because Texas’ power plants are the largest in the country,” explained Sierra Club attorney Josh Smith in a press briefing last week. “It’s primarily because a number of them lack industry standard, cost-effective pollution controls.”
In 1977, the Environmental Protection Agency created a Clean Air Act mandate for states to put forth plans to reduce regional haze. Since the EPA rejected Texas’ lackluster plan in 2009, its rules have been tied up in back-and-forth litigation that has prevented the state from implementing any meaningful pollution controls.
For example, just this month, the EPA filed a motion to vacate an Obama-era rule that would have curbed sulfur dioxide pollution. However, there is another draft rule, proposed by the Biden EPA in April 2023, that is still pending – if the EPA finalizes that rule, 12 of the dirtiest power plants across the state could finally be required to cut their pollution by 80,000 tons per year – “nearly halving the total of sulfur dioxide and emissions from all power sector activities in the state,” Smith explained.
The draft rule would require “best available retrofit technology,” or BART – basically, an emissions standard that is supposed to apply to the largest, oldest, and dirtiest power plants in the country, particularly those that existed in 1977 when the rule was created. This month, 20 environmental advocacy groups including Sierra Club sent a letter urging EPA Region 6 (which includes Texas) to finalize its plan, especially in light of the Obama-era rule’s demise (should the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals grant it). The Obama-era rule “would have resulted in the reduction of hundreds of thousands of tons of harmful sulfur dioxide pollution,” said James Perkins, Beyond Coal organizer for Sierra Club. “That rule has been mired in litigation, and we’re disappointed, but … it underscores the importance of finalizing a strong BART rule for the state. This is our last chance during the Biden administration to address the haze issue.”
Reducing haze isn’t only important for visibility – it’s a public health issue too. According to the American Lung Association, long-term exposure to sulfur dioxide at high levels increases respiratory issues and “reduces the ability of the lungs to function,” while short-term exposures make it difficult for people with asthma to breathe. Nitrogen oxide, also a haze contributor, can lead to an ozone nonattainment designation, which Austin is on track for soon. “Texas’s power plants emit so much pollution that EPA has repeatedly determined that Texas causes or contributes to unhealthy air quality in other states,” Smith says.
There’s no official timeline for the EPA to finalize its BART plan. It usually takes around 6-12 months, says Sierra Club’s Lindsay Mader, but this one has already taken 14, and with the loss of another federal rule this month, that’s “why we’re pushing the EPA so hard.”