Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is calling on private banks around the world to reject Dallas-based utility company TXU’s solicitations for USD11 billion in debt and equity to finance 11 new coal-fired power plants in Texas. The banks include UK’s HSBC, Barclays Capital, and Standard Chartered Bank. If completed, the new plants will result in 78 million tons of new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year, greater than the total greenhouse gas emissions of many countries.
The plants, which TXU says will produce 9 gigawatts of electricity by 2011, represent the first phase of TXU’s recently announced expansion strategy that also includes the construction of up to 14 additional gigawatts of similar coal-fired power plants in other parts of the country. If TXU’s full expansion plan were to be completed, TXU would become the largest corporate greenhouse gas polluter in the United States. The outdated pulverised coal-fired technology being promoted by TXU is widely recognised by regulators and scientists as the highest greenhouse-gas (GHG)-polluting source of electricity.
Although GHG emissions are a leading contributor to climate change, CO2 emissions are currently unregulated in Texas and at the federal level in the US Texas already suffers from the country’s highest rate of CO2 emissions, while the US generates the most GHG emissions in the world. The 78 million tons of CO2 pollution from TXU’s proposed project will be:
• Greater than the GHG emissions of 21 U.S. states.• Larger than the total GHG emissions of several countries, including New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden.• Larger than Japan’s entire emission reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol.• Twice as large as Canada’s Kyoto emission reduction commitment.• More than 80 percent of the UK’s Kyoto emission reduction commitment.• Equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of adding 14 million new cars to US roads.
The projects three lead arrangers are Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. In addition, Barclays Capital, Calyon and WestLB have been named as second-tier lenders, and numerous other banks have been approached to join the financing syndicate, including Socit Gnrale, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, HypoVereinsbank, Scotiabank, ABN AMRO, Wachovia and HSBC.