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Government awards Texas power plant over $1 billion for major transformation: 'Today we celebrate ... this historic victory'

"Thousands of Texans will soon be breathing cleaner air."

"Thousands of Texans will soon be breathing cleaner air."

Photo Credit: iStock

Being sustainable in rural Texas just got a little bit easier.

San Miguel Electric Cooperative received an investment of over $1.4 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to switch to battery and solar energy.

The USDA announced that San Miguel will power 47 counties in Texas with renewable energy and have the environmental equivalent of removing 446,000 cars from the road every year. It will also create up to 600 new jobs.

This is incredibly good news considering San Miguel's history. The Environmental Integrity Project released a report in 2019 detailing how the plant's previous coal ash pollution affected local wildlife and the cleanliness of groundwater and drinking water.

While San Miguel denies more specific allegations about its pollution, according to the Texas Tribune, this switch to clean energy will clearly benefit the community.

Clean energy can save a lot of money in the long run, which means this $1.4 billion investment in San Miguel has the potential to help residents of Texas lower their energy costs. Using solar also cuts down on air pollution and creates a safer and healthier world for all of us.

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Solar panels have already brought so much good to Texas by playing a major role in protecting the Smiley Meadow Preserve. In fact, pairing solar farms with crops and animal farms could be one solution of many that can meet the environmental needs of all beings.

In a press release from the Sierra Club, McMullen County Judge James Teal said, "For years, folks in my county have been worried about water contamination from San Miguel's lignite mine, so with this announcement, we are hopeful that McMullen County's water will be clean long into the future."

"Ratepayers in rural electric cooperatives like San Miguel, Magic Valley, and other South Texas Electric Cooperatives stand to benefit from these low-cost, reliable energy resources," Dave Cortez, director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, said in the press release

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He continued, "We applaud San Miguel's leadership team and look forward to the years ahead as South Texans tap into the potential for thousands of good-paying jobs in geothermal, energy efficiency, solar, battery storage, and wind power."

"Today we celebrate the truly collaborative work that secured this historic victory," said James Perkins, a Texas campaign organizer for the Sierra Club. "From the forward-thinking of the San Miguel Electric Co-op to the determination of surrounding communities to the embracing of the New ERA program on national and local levels, thousands of Texans will soon be breathing cleaner air."

While being in a rural area may affect a person's individual ability to access resources and be sustainable in general, environmental policies in rural areas can make a very big difference.

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