How Big Is Big?

Five ways to grasp the enormity of TXU's projected pollution

Posted: 05-Sep-2006; Updated: 26-Feb-2007

The Texas energy giant TXU has proposed building 11 highly polluting, coal-fired plants. The plants would pump a staggering amount of global warming pollution into our skies.

TXU's existing plants already produce 55 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) a year, and the new plants would more than double that — adding an estimated 78 million tons of CO₂ per year.

But how much is 78 million tons? Building these dirty-coal plants would be like:

1 Adding an entirely new state — 78 million tons is more than 21 other states produce today. It's also more than many countries, including Sweden, Denmark and Portugal. 

2 Putting 10 million Cadillac Escalades on the road — that’s four Escalades for each one of TXU's 2.4 million customers!

3 Cutting and burning all the trees in a section of the Amazon rainforest the size of 9,360,000 football fields — an area slightly larger than California.

Or put another way, these plants would severely undermine gains made by initiatives around the country. Their pollution would be:

4 2.6 times more than the gains from California's bold greenhouse gas reduction program for cars and trucks.

5 8 times larger than the benefits in 2018 resulting from the Northeastern States Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to cap power plant emissions.

And to put this in broader perspective, consider these general facts about Texas and global warming:

• Among all countries, the U.S. is the number-one global warming polluter. With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. is responsible for nearly 25 percent of the world’s manmade emissions of carbon dioxide.
• Among all states, Texas is the number-one global warming polluter. If it were a country, it would rank 7th.
• Among the sources of U.S. global warming pollution, power plants are the biggest polluters. Coal-fired plants, such as those that TXU is proposing, are the major source of this pollution.

In short, Texas and the U.S. are on their way to being remembered as the number-one global warming polluters.

Take action. Send an email to Governor Perry. Ask him what's the rush? Urge him to slow down the review process so that cleaner energy alternatives can be considered.