Free Republic

Luminant, the Dallas-based electricity generator that has protested federal regulators' timetable to curtail emissions from its coal-fired plants, said Monday it will idle two of those facilities and stop mining Texas lignite at some locations by the end of the year, costing about 500 jobs. Luminant said it took the actions to prepare to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which requires electricity generators in 27 states to cut emissions by Jan. 1, a deadline CEO David Campbell called "unrealistic." The company said it will spend about $280 million through 2012 on emissions control equipment, but won't...

Texas energy company Luminant announced on Monday new burdensome Environmental Protection Agency regulations are forcing it to close several facilities, which will result in about 500 job losses. The company will be idling — stopping the usage of — two energy generating units. It will also cease extracting lignite from three different Texas mines. The EPA regulation Luminant cites as too burdensome is the new Cross-State Air Pollution rule, which requires Texas power generators to make “dramatic reductions” in emissions beginning on January 1, 2012. “We have hundreds of employees who have spent their entire professional careers at Luminant and...