Explosion at CPS’s Deely power plant underscores the need for new renewable energy and efficiency projects
This week’s explosion at CPS Energy’s J.T. Deely power plant is the latest in the growing list of incidents, malfunctions, and accidents related to the day-to-day process of burning coal to produce energy. While the power plant, located in southeast Bexar County, is slated to close in 2018, the explosion serves as a reminder of the plant’s instability and outdated technology that put it out of compliance with federal clean-air regulations and resulted in heavy fines in 2008. Meanwhile CPS is proposing rate hikes fueled by this dirty and dangerous energy production, instead of prioritizing energy conservation, efficiency, and local renewable energy projects that reinvest in our community.
The San Antonio ratepayers, particularly residents of the Southeast side as well as middle class and poor communities, have shouldered the burden of pollution, toxic emissions, and inequitable rate increases for far too long. The explosion at Deely should push CPS to rapidly reduce imminent threats to public health and close the power plant ahead of schedule. However this action must be coupled with divestment in other forms of dangerous power production. This includes not relicensing the aging and risky STP 1 and 2 nuclear power plants at the end of their operating permits, and reducing the use of natural gas-fueled power which relies on the highly polluting, non-renewable, and hazardous extraction process known as fracking.This week’s incident presents a moment for CPS prioritize safe, environment- and community-friendly programs and policies. This means incentivizing energy conservation and efficiency through mechanisms such as: weatherization programs; supporting updates to the city’s building codes; and earmarking increased income from rate changes for reinvestment in energy efficiency programs that prioritize working class communities.
Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo
Seeing the dangers of coal-produced power should also lead to a local expansion in clean energy, with a commitment to an accessible decentralized solar energy program. Such a program could use a variety of methods including net metering, which helps encourage individual energy efficiency, as well as community shared solar projects.However these investments hang at a balance between energy rates, growing energy demands, city expansion, and other factors. And at this crossroads,the rate increase proposed by CPS:
Burdens small business owners and residential customers to provide rate breaks to “wholesale” customers;
Burdens struggling families by not providing reasonable rate increase tiers; and
Burdens existing customers by subsidizing system expansion for new large-scale commercial and residential developments.
In his recent opinion piece in the Express News, District 7 Councilman Cris Medina asked the important question, “who should pay?” for these expansions. And looking at the record setting bonuses for CPS executives (58 percent pay increase over 2 years) and the reality for working class families struggling to pay rising energy bills, we know exactly who is currently paying the price. Poor communities face the added hardship of an older building and housing stock, which are significantly less energy efficient. These same communities are often in the shadows of the polluting industries that pose an ongoing health and safety threat. Tuesday’s explosion at the Deely power plant only emphasizes the need for CPS to prioritize the community and customers it serves, invest in energy efficiency and have those customers using the most energy pay more.
For additional information and press inquiries, please contact Diana Lopez at 210.535.7060.
