The Texas Water Plan projections for steam electric power
generation (SEPG) provide a stark example of how the planning process often
fails to live up to its potential to guide the state to a sustainable water
future.
Our new analysis, available at www.texascenter.org, shows that the
regions often ignored reasonable guidance from the TWDB that would have
resulted in substantially lower projected SEPG water demand. Instead, many of the regional planning groups
have included unsubstantiated projections for future demand by steam
electric plants.
More troubling, TWDB
has failed to push back against these inappropriate projections and failed to
adopt rules that would direct the regions to substantiate the SEPG water
demand.
Finally, the process for
developing SEPG water demand projections is essentially disconnected from the
reality of how many new power plants Texas might actually need or expect over
the next 50 years and where those
plants should be located from an
available water supply perspective.
