Two months ago major headlines were made when a coalition of environmental groups, financiers, citizen activists and energy giant TXU cut a deal to stop the construction of a number of archaic coal-fired power plants in the state of Texas. At the time the deal stuggested to us a blueprint for the way businesses and activists can work together: citizens and Rainforest Action Network worked the streets and the internet, NRDC and Environmental Defense sought common ground with TXU in the boardroom, and the banks did the numbers. The future looked bright indeed.
A little too bright, apparently. This week TXU announced that it was partnering with Mitsubishi to build some of the largest nuclear plants in our nation’s history in Texas, and….nobody’s talking about it. Aside from the Wall Street Journal, newspapers aren’t following up. The environmental groups have been quiet. Friends of the Earth Executive Director Norman Dean fills the void: "It looks to me like TXU and its partners did not put all their cards on the table at the time the deal was cut. The irony is that Texas is the number one producer of wind power, and is perfectly situated to meet its growing energy needs through wind power and other renewable energy sources. If we were putting the subsidies that we’re putting into nuclear power into wind power, we’d have a lot more supply at this point." LISTEN (11 min)
