Environmental advocates are calling for a public forum regarding a new Entergy Texas’ power station proposed for Bridge City.
The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and other conservation groups, including the local Port Arthur Community Action Network, have started a campaign that included submitting form letters from 465 members across its network asking for a public hearing and giving information about pollution in the area. It also included a section for residents to include their own comments as well.
At least six people from Southeast Texas joined the effort to seek further scrutiny from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality into the proposal to create the mostly natural gas-burning plant.
“We demand that TCEQ hold a public meeting in the community as soon as possible on this dangerous proposal, and we ask Entergy to look at alternative ways to meet energy supply and reduce energy demand in our area,” John Beard, CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, said in a statement.
The groups have criticized the plant’s location in an area already occupied by numerous heavy industrial emitters, its estimated annual emissions and its proximity to recreational areas.
Dubbed the Orange County Advanced Power Station and expected to power around 230,000 homes by 2026, the plant has been framed by the utility as a tool to reduce its carbon footprint and improve efficiency.
While planned to primarily use natural gas, the plant will be the company’s first to also be able to use hydrogen immediately upon start-up.
The company believes using hydrogen will allow it to produce electricity with net zero carbon emissions, but creating a plant with gas and hydrogen capabilities means it can transition over time as the market changes to favor cleaner energy.
The plant’s start-up also is planned to coincide with the retirement of older units at the Sabine Power Station in Orange County, most of which were completed in the early 1960s.
“This facility will help ensure that we are meeting our customers’ needs for reliable and low-cost energy in a way that reduces emissions, provides significantly cleaner power than older power plants, and positions the plant for sustained operations as the nation moves to a low carbon economy,” representatives for the company wrote in an email to the Enterprise.
According to the utility’s estimates, the new plant would help reduce its current carbon emissions by almost 40% compared to the older technology currently in use.
Entergy also has calculated that having newer, more efficient generation in Southeast Texas will save customers around $1.5 million in net benefits.
The utility estimates that construction will create more than 7,000 direct jobs in Texas and nearly $1.8 billion in economic activity for the region’s economy. Once operational, the plant will have more than two-dozen permanent employees.
But most environmental advocates still believe that best path forward is one that completely eschews fossil fuels, instead kick-starting the development and improvement of renewable technologies that will ultimately make them more marketable.
“Entergy has an opportunity here to focus on safe, reliable, renewable energy and make further investments in energy efficiency,” Emma Pabst, a representative with the Beyond Coal Campaign for the Sierra Club, said in a statement. “Instead, Entergy is doubling down on a plan that makes the many problems of the climate crisis --flooding, power outages, dangerous pollution-- even worse.”
While Entergy has planned plants like the one in Orange County and recently completed another natural gas station in Montgomery County at the beginning of the year, it also has been exploring more renewable sources for its portfolio.
Along with the recently-penned power purchase agreement for the Umbriel Solar Facility proposed in Polk County, Entergy Texas also is seeking permitting approval for its own solar facility in Liberty County and has issued a request for proposal seeking 400 megawatts in additional solar resources.
jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com
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