StopTXU.com Launches as Online Community Stands Up Against New Coal Plants
September 19, 2006
(September 19, 2006 – Austin) A new website launched today by the Texas office of Environmental Defense provides one-stop shopping for the most current factual information about TXU’s 11 proposed coal power plants across Texas. The site – www.StopTXU.com – contains downloadable fact sheets, information on the risks posed by TXU’s building bonanza, and a forum through which citizens can voice their opposition to TXU’s proposal and Governor Rick Perry’s fast-track approval process.
“Even before we launched this site, our online community delivered more than 15,000 messages to TXU CEO John Wilder, Governor Perry and the other gubernatorial candidates,” said Environmental Defense director of regional communication Colin Rowan. “We don’t have TXU’s well-oiled and well-funded PR machine, but we do have facts that even the most clever spin-doctors can’t deny. We need to get the facts out to our fellow Texans, and StopTXU.com will help us do just that.”
The easily-navigable site is offered as a resource to state leaders, concerned citizens, the media, and those who want to learn the facts about the health effects of toxic emissions, how carbon dioxide impacts global warming, and related topics.
“If people want spin, they can go to TXU’s coal site,” Rowan said. “Now they have a place to turn if they want the facts. Cleaning the air and slowing global warming are critical issues in Texas, and in 2006, one of the greatest obstacles to addressing them is TXU’s plan to build more coal plants.”
TXU’s proposed power plants would produce an additional 78 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, more than doubling the company’s current emissions. The company has offered no solution that would reduce these global warming emissions. Currently there are plans by other utilities to use cleaner technology that would capture the carbon before it is released into the air.
“While many of its peers are working on solutions to global warming, TXU is adding to the problem by turning a blind eye and using old technology,” Rowan said. “This company is not just taking a few steps in the wrong direction. It has turned around and is sprinting full speed back to the 1950s.”