News: Media Center

WASHINGTON (November 7, 2006) -- The TXU Corp., which is embarking on a massive campaign to build coal-fired power plants, claimed today that its new facilities will be designed with the capability of capturing and storing carbon dioxide, the primary contributor of global warming.

Below is a statement by David G. Hawkins, director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"In reality, TXU is simply imagining the arrival of a cost-effective technology to capture carbon dioxide from its old-fashioned power plant design. No such system has proven viable -- even at pilot scale. And even if TXU were to succeed in building such plants, the result would be unnecessary pollution, unnecessary added costs, and unnecessary risks for investors who accept TXU's unsupported promises to control the global warming pollution that these plants would produce.

"TXU should go back to the drawing boards and develop a real plan to meet our electricity needs in a responsible manner. Simply hoping that 'something will turn up' to deal with the pollution problem these plants would generate is neither environmentally nor financially responsible."

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.