Power Plants

The power plants that produce the energy we consume as a society have a high cost, higher than our power bills each month. The land a power plant is built on must first be cleared, which kills and harms local ecosystems. Many require access roads and additional infrastructure to bring fuels, water, and other necessities to the plant. The combustion byproducts of these power plants include compounds like CO2, which contributes to climate change, and a whole slew of lung irritants and carcinogens. In this way they disturb and disrupt the local environments, and hurt the populations around them.

Additionally, power plants dump their wastewater, which cools down the plant, into open waters, whether freshwater streams, lakes, or the ocean. Coal powered plants alone cause an enormous amount of toxic water pollution. When they do not dump their polluted water straight into a natural body of water, they fill retention ponds with the polluted water. Several retention ponds have burst, destroying the local bodies of water.

Nuclear power plants produce different kinds of waste, but are no less important to cover. The protective coverings people have to wear to protect themselves from radiation are discarded after use, causing huge amounts of waste. There are also the spent nuclear fuel assemblies, which must be disposed of afterward. Both of these types of waste are highly radioactive.

Then, power lines also cause disruption to local ecosystems. The plant life around the towers that hold the lines above ground is constantly pruned back so that it does not interfere with the towers. This can affect wildlife populations as well, especially where there are a lot of lines.
Texas is one of the biggest polluters in the states when it comes to their power plants. Some of the biggest power plants in Texas include Martin Lake, W.A. Parish, Monticello, Limestone, and Welsh. In 2013, Texas power plants produced as much carbon emissions as 45.9 million cars.