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As noted by the Trains Editor, my former employer TXU - I am retired - now Energy Future Holdings has opened a new coal fired power plant.  It burns lignite coal, which is a low grade coal that is found in abundant supply in Texas.  Lignite coal is a dirty fuel that is blended with low sulfur coal to produce a better outcome.  All of our lignite power plants are built next to the coal sources.  Otherwise, it would not be feasible to mine the coal and transport it long distances, as is the case with PRB coal.  In fact, it costs more to get the lignite out of the ground at most of our locations than it costs to mine the PRB coals.  But the transport costs, which can easily equal the per ton cost of mining the coal, makes the lignite coal cheaper than the PRB coal in Texas.  However, because of environmental concerns, we blend PRB coal with the lignite coal to help reduce air pollution. The wide spread use of lignite coal in Texas power plants has helped rein in the cost of electric energy in the Lone Star state.  However, the cost advantage has been eroded by the need to install expensive pollution control equipment to control the pollution outputs created by the burning of lignite.  Prior to the development of coal plants in Texas, the state was dependent on natural gas for most of its electricl power plant boiler fuel.  And it became or has become very expensive.  At the time I went to work for the company, we had some gas contracts for nine cents a BTU.  Now the cost is in the neighborhood of $5.70 a BTU, but it has been close to $15 a BTU during the past decade.  Had it not been for the coal, the cost of electric energy in Texas, as well as many other parts of the U.S., would have had a dampening impact on the U.S. economy.    At the time that I retired from the company, we operated approximately 56 miles of rail devoted to getting the coal from the mines - open pit - to the power plants.  The railroad was a neat little operation.
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