"Texas coal companies are leaving behind contaminated land. The state is letting them."
"In the late 1970s, at the tail end of a sweeping push to bring electricity to rural Texas, Alonzo Peeler Jr. struck a series of deals with three electric cooperatives: They could build a coal-fired power plant on the sprawling Atascosa County ranch where his family had run cattle for more than a century. And they could mine the abundant lignite, or “brown coal,” from underneath the property to feed the plant.
To Peeler, now 79, it made sense for a multitude of reasons. Not only would it bring more power generation to the farming and ranching region south of San Antonio, but it would boost the local tax base and bring additional income to his family.
“Looking back,” Peeler says now, “I made a big mistake.”"
Naveena Sadasivam and Kiah Collier report for Grist and the Texas Tribune October 30, 2019.
SEE ALSO:
"Big Coal Gave A Tiny Texas Town Free Land. There’s A Major Catch." (Texas Tribune)
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