Environmental Defense Responds to TXU Request to Pull TV Ads

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Colin Rowan, Environmental Defense, (512) 691-3416 
Jim Marston, Environmental Defense, (512) 289-5293

(Austin – February 16, 2007) In response to a February 13 letter from TXU’s public relations office requesting that Environmental Defense pull from the air a new television spot detailing the flaws of TXU’s 11 proposed coal-fired power plants, Environmental Defense today sent the energy company a detailed response and an invitation to CEO John Wilder to a live and public debate.

“Our ad is accurate and fact-based and it’s staying on the air,” said Environmental Defense regional director Jim Marston. “The ad simply restates the many flaws of TXU’s proposed coal plan that we have voiced for months. But TXU sent its letter to the press before I even received it, so we felt compelled to set the record straight.”

Marston invited TXU CEO Wilder to a live public debate on this issue.

“Dueling letters don’t help the public understand this issue,” Marston said. “Texans cares a great deal about their health and how TXU’s plants will impact them. We think a pubic debate would be a much more productive way for each side to get its points across. We hope Mr. Wilder will find time in his schedule to accept our invitation.”

Click here to download a PDF document containing the Environmental Defense letter and the TXU letter (http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/tx/TXU_ED_Letters_both.pdf). Visit http://www.stopTXU.com to see the television ad.

The ad, titled “Profits and Pollution” began running in the Waco market last week and in Dallas this week. Additional buys in other Texas markets are planned. Viewers are directed to www.stopTXU.com and urged to ask their state legislator to slow down TXU’s fast-tracked coal plan.

“TXU’s TV ads are full of fear and fiction,” Marston said. “Our ad sticks to the facts, and the fact of the matter is that TXU’s dirty coal plants will make a ring of fire around McLennan County and spew new pollution up to Dallas and down to Austin.”