[CitizensTruth] Texans Beat Big Coal, and a Film Shows How

[Daniel Stafford]

Original Story Source 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/us/05coal.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=d34abdc2c050919b&ex=1365048000&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1207494026-KDSTT+BZWFeA+qKk8XxUwA>

April 5, 2008


  Texans Beat Big Coal, and a Film Shows How

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ralph_blumenthal/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

HOUSTON --- David had only a slingshot. Texans fighting big coal have 
Robert Redford 
<http://movies.nytimes.com/person/1548558/Robert-Redford?inline=nyt-per>.

A year after an uproar over pollution forced a turnaround in plans for 
19 new coal-fired power plants around the state, the battle has been 
recounted in a documentary, "Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars," 
commissioned by Mr. Redford's Sundance Preserve. It spotlights the 
unlikely coalition of ranchers, big-city mayors and environmentalists 
that stymied Gov. Rick Perry 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/rick_perry/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
and spurred the record $45 billion takeover of Texas's biggest electric 
company, TXU.

To some local surprise, Shell Oil co-sponsored a screening of the film 
at a forum here last week. Shell supported the event, said its 
president, John Hofmeister, "because we felt it was an appropriate venue 
to share and discuss our commitment to developing technologies, such as 
coal gasification, and other responsible energy solutions."

The 34-minute film, narrated by Mr. Redford, the actor, director and 
environmental activist who successfully fought a coal-burning plant amid 
Utah national parks in 1975, also seeks to mobilize worldwide opposition 
to new coal plants as far away as China.

"We see people taking action against the toxic paralysis from leaders 
higher up," Mr. Redford, 71, said at the March 27 screening by the 
Progressive Forum, a speakers' group. "For me it's a question of hope, a 
small sliver of light from the dark we've been thrown into the last 
seven years, so I hope you appreciate it."

Mr. Perry, a Republican, had directed the State Office of Administrative 
Hearings to speed the approval process for coal-burning plants proposed 
by TXU. A state judge overturned the order as unlawful, and the utility 
then worked with environmental groups to be bought out by Energy Future 
Holdings, scrapping 8 of 11 proposed plants.

A spokesman for Mr. Perry, Robert Black, took issue with Mr. Redford's 
account, saying: "As in most things, liberals in Hollywood tend to live 
in the fiction fantasy world. The governor lives in reality."

The governor had not been trying to bypass rules to fast-track the TXU 
plants, Mr. Black said. Rather, Mr. Perry "only changed the hands on the 
clock," telling state regulators that "you don't need to take two or 
three years on this."

Without new energy sources, Texas would need to begin dipping into its 
reserves by 2011, Mr. Black said, adding, "Perhaps Robert Redford would 
like to see Texas like his home state of California, with rolling 
blackouts."

"Fighting Goliath" opens with the dawning realization of farmers and 
ranchers near Waco in 2006 that eight proposed coal plants, along with 
existing power plants, would center them in what the film calls a "ring 
of fire."

"We were going to have four coal and two gas plants within a mile of our 
house," said Robert Cervenka, a farmer in Riedel.

Questioning safety assurances by TXU representatives and the Texas 
Commission on Environmental Quality --- one skeptical woman at a 
Hallsburg City Council meeting says, "I didn't fall off a cabbage truck" 
--- the townsfolk seek support (somewhat to their surprise) from an 
Austin environmental lobby, Public Citizen 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/public_citizen/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, 
and Mayor Laura Miller 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/laura_miller/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
of Dallas, who crisscrosses the state raising alarms about air quality.

The coalition gained other powerful supporters: Mayor Bill White of 
Houston; Mayor Robert Cluck of Arlington, a physician; and Steve Susman, 
a Houston antitrust litigator who with his firm, Susman Godfrey, donated 
more than $2 million worth of legal time and expertise.

His strategy was simple, Mr. Susman said: "Can I make it expensive 
enough for them to do it wrong?" In the end, 38 Texas cities, towns and 
school boards joined the fight.

In a forum after the screening, Mr. Hofmeister of Shell said: "An issue 
was dealt with, but the problem was not solved. We need more energy."

The country now consumes one rail car of coal every three seconds, Mr. 
Hofmeister said, adding, "If we could gasify coal, we could use it more 
efficiently and manage its emissions."

Tom Smith, director of Public Citizen and a participant in the film, 
said at the screening that Texas still had the three of the proposed TXU 
plants pending, plus four more awaiting permits and at least four others 
proposed. Around the country, Mr. Smith said, plans for 69 were dropped 
after the furor in Texas, leaving 80 others.

"We hope," he said, "that the fight we had here in Texas represented in 
this grouping inspires people in other states and other countries to 
stand up and say, 'Not in our backyard, not in our community, not in our 
state, not in our time.' "


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