Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Taking the "Bull by the Horns" in Texas

"First Published on Qassia"

What do you get when ranchers, farmers, mayors, and a host of other people take on TXU - a giant-sized electric company? You get a Texas-sized fight!

From the governor's fast-tracked permitting process, to the sketchy environmental information, the idea of 18 coal-fired power plants to be built in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Waco area was more than Laura Miller could take.

The former Dallas mayor led a group of mayors representing 36 Texas cities, counties, and school districts to form the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition. The TCACC successfully challenged the building of new coal-fired power plants that would have added over 100,000,000 tons of CO2, nearly 4,000 pounds of toxic mercury, and 30,000 tons of nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere each year.

Due to the efforts of Mayor Miller, the coalition, and all the concerned ranchers, farmers, townspeople, and environmentalists, TXU cancelled the construction of all but three of the proposed plants. In May of this year, Ms Miller was honored for her outstanding efforts to protect the Earth's climate and ozone layer.

A documentary, narrated by Robert Redford, was made about their struggle, and subsequent victory.

Until next time...become the change you imagine.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Awesome, sometimes you can take down big corporations