INSTITUTE INDEX: Luminant's lawlessness in Texas

Number of times that two Texas coal-fired power plants owned by Dallas-based Luminant are alleged to have violated the Clean Air Act in recent years: 38,000

Date on which Luminant learned it was being sued over the violations at the plants, Big Brown and Monticello in Northeast Texas: 10/27/2011

Date when the company was sued over similar violations at its Martin Lake plant in Rusk County, Texas: 9/2010

In the past five years, number of times that the Monticello plant violated the opacity limits for its smokestack emissions: 18,000

Number of such violations during that time at the Big Brown plant (photo above): 20,000

Number of times Big Brown exceeded limits for particulate matter, which contributes to asthma, heart attacks and premature death: 370

In a five-mile radius around Big Brown, percent by which sulfur dioxide levels have surpassed what's safe to breathe: 300

Of the top three industrial polluters in Texas, number that are Luminant coal plants: 3

Percent of pollution from the state's 17 coal plants that Luminant's Big Brown, Monticello and Martin Lake operations emit: 46

Percent of the state's total industrial pollution those three plants emit: 25

Pounds of mercury those three plants collectively emit each year: 4,000

Year in which TXU became Luminant in a highly-leveraged buyout: 2007

Price paid for the company by private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Texas Pacific Group, and Goldman Sachs: $45 billion

Rank of the deal among the largest leveraged buyouts in history: 1

Date on which Luminant filed a lawsuit to block new federal air pollution rules, the cost of which it said would force it to close a coal-fired unit and three nearby mines: 9/12/2011

Date on which Texas Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry issued a statement siding with Luminant in the effort to block the federal rules: 9/12/2011

(Click on figure to go to source. Photo of Luminant's Big Brown coal-fired power plant via Texas Green Report.)