Where we have been.......

April 20, 2009 — We Won!!

Contested Case Hearing was a Civil Trial, Judge from Texas Office of Administrative Hearings sent from Austin to Bay City:  Not a public comment event, that had taken place 3 weeks ago.  Judge said only 2 things were to be decided at Hearing:

1) did Matagorda County's No Coal Coalition organization **have standing** to contest the Kentucky based White Stallion Corporation??

2) should TCEQ be allowed to go ahead right now and give the Permit to White Stallion, so they would be allowed to continue w/plans for their publicly announced August groundbreaking??

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2 Attorney's from Houston representing White Stallion arrived

2 TCEQ Attorney's arrived

4 staff Attorney's from Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, & Environmental Integrity Project arrived to represent No Coal Coalition organization.

3 hour hearing

TCEQ Attorney said "White Stallion application for permit/emissions met existing State regs of the Bush Administration.  The regs of the new Obama Administration will change soon.  But the White Stallion permit should be allowed right now".

White Stallion Attorney's attempted legal challenges to prevent our Matagorda County No Coal Coalition from obtaining standing as an organized group.  But we had our non-profit status papers from Sec. of State approved on April 17th so Judge ruled **we had standing**.

re: White Stallion's publicly announced August groundbreaking: Judge said in essence to TCEQ & White Stallion  "Forget it.  TCEQ & White Stallion, you are pushing this at the speed of light before the public becomes aware of it and has had time to engage.  I'm tentatively setting January 2010 for Hearing in Austin".

"All Attorneys get together and work up some schedules, get back to me......in meantime, public submit anything you like to me in .pdf format, I want to get up to speed on this, I will be your Judge for all subsequent hearings".

The State of Texas Judge gave the citizens of Matagorda County 6-8 months breathing room to learn more about the issue which will affect their very lives, health, and equally important recreational future for the next 50 years.
Decide for themselves if they really want Matagorda County to become another Texas City.....and if opposed then organize to oppose it.

 

.pdf download

 

2nd Court ruliing: May 19, 2009

After an extremely aggressive Appeal by the Applicant (White Stallion) to the State of Texas Judge to set aside the previous Court ruling, the trial date was pushed back even further than previously set.  In effect derailing for the entire year of 2009 White Stallion's publicly announced Fall 2009 ground breaking.  The new trial date for the Contested Case hearing of No Coal Coalition Vs. White Stallion is February 2010 in Austin.

The new ruling favoring No Coal Coalition to delay the Contested Case hearing until next year gives us more time to further our stated goal of allowing more time for the residents of Matagorda & equally affected neighboring Counties to become more informed about the issue, engage, and organized to prevent the White Stallion Coal Plant from locating in Matagorda County.