Briefing Paper-Clean Energy Along the Border

Cynthia Bock-Goodner (cmbg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu)
Mon, 14 Aug 1995 13:46:09 -0500

"Clean Energy Along the Texas-Mexico Border: Building Consensus in
Protecting Air Quality," is now available from the U.S.-Mexican Policy
Studies Program. This 30-page briefing paper presents the results of
the most recent study of the pollution impacts of Carbon I and II over
Southwest Texas. Carbon I and II are coal-fired electricity
generating plants in northern Coahuila that were built without
pollution control equipment for sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.
These plants are among the ten largest sources of sulfur dioxide emissions
in North America.

The briefing paper is a compilation of the presentations made by air quality
specialists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. National
Park Service, and the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de
Monterrey in a February 1995 border energy seminar sponsored by the
U.S.-Mexican Policy Studies Program. The report contains specific
information on the visibility impacts of sulfur dioxide emissions over Big
Bend National Park as well as information on the impacts on the McDonald
Observatory. The paper also includes a description of lower-cost
desulfurization processes developed at the University of Texas that could be
used to retrofit Carbon I and II. The paper concludes with a series of
recommendations for future negotiations between the U.S. and Mexican
governments on energy production standards.

The report is available at:

http://www.utexas.edu/depts/lbj-school/usmex/usmex.html