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Oklaunion power station is a retired power station in Vernon, Wilbarger, Texas, United States.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Plant name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| Oklaunion power station | Vernon, Wilbarger, Texas, United States | 34.082594, -99.175828 (exact) |
The map below shows the exact location of the power station.
Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):
- Unit 1: 34.082594, -99.175828
Project Details
Table 2: Unit-level details
| Unit name | Status | Fuel(s) | Capacity (MW) | Technology | Start year | Retired year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | retired | coal: subbituminous | 720 | subcritical | 1986 | 2020 |
Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details
| Unit name | Owner | Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Public Service Company of Oklahoma [100%] | American Electric Power Co Inc [100.0%] |
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 4,431,483 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions: 3,794 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions: 7,352 tons
- 2005 Mercury Emissions: 159 lb.
Plant Retirement
In September 2018 AEP said it will retire the plant in 2020 because it cannot compete with cheaper power from gas and renewables.[1]
The coal plant was decommissioned on September 30, 2020. In October 2020, Frontier Energy bought the coal plant from AEP. Frontier said it plans to convert the coal plant to run on natural gas.[2]
Legal challenge over pollution control at 8 Texas coal plants
In October 2022, the Environment Integrity Project and the Sierra Club filed legal action against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the effective exemption of 8 coal plants from fine particle pollution control standards.[3] According to the lawsuit, the EPA failed to approve an amendment to Texas' State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. By neither approving nor rejecting the new SIP by the statutory deadline, the coal power stations were free to continue emitting dangerous levels of pollution for “for hundreds and in some cases thousands of hours each year.”[4]
The legal action was targeted at 8 coal plants: Pirkey Power Plant, Fayette Power Project, Martin Lake Steam Station, Limestone Generating Station, San Miguel Electric Cooperative, Harrington Station, Gibbons Creek Steam Station, and Oklaunion power station.[5]
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Oklaunion power station
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[6] Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[7]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Oklaunion power station
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 7 | $50,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 11 | $1,200,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 120 | $6,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 5 | $120,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 4 | $1,900,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 8 | $3,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Coal waste Sites
- Oklaunion Power Station Pond Number 23
- Oklaunion Power Station Pond Number 6
- Oklaunion Power Station Sludge Pond
Oklaunion ranked 92nd on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste
In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill.[8] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[9]
Oklaunion Power Station ranked number 92 on the list, with 254,652 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[8]
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ "AEP to retire Oklaunion coal plant due to renewables, gas competition," Utility Dive, Sep 25, 2018
- ↑ "Frontier Energy buys Oklaunion AEP power plant, plans to convert to natural gas," Texomas, Oct. 23, 2020
- ↑ "Coal-fired plants in Texas bypassing pollution controls, lawsuit says", Reuters, October 11, 2022
- ↑ "Environmental Integrity Project v. Michael Regan: Civil Action No. 1:22-cv-3063", United States District Court for the District of Columbia, filed October 10, 2022
- ↑ "Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Pollution From Eight Texas Coal Plants", Environmental Integrity Project, October 10, 2022
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
- ↑ TRI Explorer, EPA, accessed January 2009.
Additional data
To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
