Parish Generating Station

Washington A. Parish Electric Generating Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by NRG Energy near Thompsons, Texas.

DOE selects NRG Energy for carbon capture project in Texas
In September 2009, NRG announced that it was applying for funding from the Department of Energy to subsidize the cost of installing carbon capture and storage equipment at Parish. The company would not disclose the cost of the equipment. The demonstration project would capture about 90 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from 60 megawatts of power generation.

In March 2010 it was announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected NRG to receive $154 million, which includes funcing from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to construct a "post-combustion carbon capture demonstration unit" outside of Houston at the company's Parish Generating Station. The project is scheduled to go online in 2013 and will be one of the first of its kind.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Texas Genco II
 * Parent Company: NRG Energy
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 2,697 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 734 MW (1977), 734 MW (1978), 615 MW (1980), 615 MW (1982)
 * Location: 2500 Y.U. Jones Rd., Thompsons, TX 77481
 * GPS Coordinates: 29.475722, -95.636167
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 21,076,082 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 56,438 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 5,307 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 957 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Parish Generating Station
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Parish Generating Station
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Parish ranked 6th in terms of largest carbon dioxide emissions
According to a 2009 report by Environment America, "America's Biggest Polluters," the Parish Generating Station is the sixth dirtiest plant in the nation, releasing 20.9 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2007. Ranking is based upon Environmental Protection Agency data.

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