Jan 10, 2008 9:42 pm US/Central
Film Highlights Former Mayor Miller's Coal Fight
Robert Redford Narrates 30-Minute Documentary
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
In 2006, then-Dallas Mayor Laura Miller began a fight against the construction of 18 coal-fire plants in Texas. Her battle to clean up the air is now the subject of a new documentary film called "Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars."
At the time, several big energy companies were looking to build the coal plants in east and central Texas. But Miller rallied fellow mayors across the state to stop construction.
TXU, now called Energy Future Holdings, had planned on building 11 of those 18 plants. However, eight were scrapped in the end.
"I think this had a lot to do with the fact that when all those people got together representing the public and said, 'Old style coal plants are dirty and bad for the environment,' the company had to take notice," Miller said.
The 30-minute film is presented by Robert Redford in conjunction with his Sundance Preserve. The documentary also features other mayors from North Texas including Robert Cluck of Arlington and Hebert Gears of Irving.
Although eight coal plants have been scrapped, three will go forward as planned. Permits for the seven remaining still face stiff opposition.
Energy Future Holdings says the desire to build the plants happened under former ownership.
Under new ownership, the company says "it has made a voluntary commitment to fully offset emissions from the three units it is building now and to further reduce key emissions by 20 percent across its existing coal plants."
"Fighting Goliath" will screen Friday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas. The screening is free to the public.
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