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San Antonio to Shutter Coal Plant

Photo by daver6@sbcglobal.net http://www.flickr.com/photos/daver6/

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro announced today that City Public Service's Deely coal-fired plant will be shut down by 2018.  CPS Energy, San Antonio's publicly-owned utility, will turn to solar power announcing agreements with five investment partners, committing to meet 20% of its energy needs through renewable energy by 2020. 

"Today is the beginning of San Antonio's effort to become the 'new energy economy' city," said Mayor Castro in a live webcast today.

The CPS Deely plant is the first publically-owned coal plant announced to retire in Texas.

According to the president of CPS Energy, Doyle Beneby, their new plans will cut emissions of sulfur dioxides by 85%, nitrus oxide by 30%, carbon dioxides by 25%, and mercury by 58% by the time the plant closes.

"Closing Deely coal plant and transitioning to a clean energy economy will be a tremendous benefit for San Antonio," according to a joint news release released by the Sierra Club, SEED Coalition, and Public Citizen.

Daniel Reese is a photography intern at KUT News. He is a student at Ohio University.