Welcome to part three of our Carbon Conversations video series. Today, we bring you to Thompsons, Texas in exurban Fort Bend County—home to one of the country’s largest and most notorious coal-fired power plants: WA Parish.

WA Parish is more than just an eyesore on the landscape—it’s a massive polluter linked to nearly 178 premature deaths every year. Its presence looms over the region, a symbol of how industrial projects quietly shape the health, environment, and futures of communities that rarely make the headlines.

This is also the site of the Petra Nova project—once celebrated as a breakthrough in “clean coal” technology and a flagship CCS experiment. But the reality didn’t live up to the promise. Petra Nova consistently underperformed, soaked up nearly a billion dollars in public subsidies, and used the captured CO₂ not for climate solutions, but to extract more oil through fracking. When oil prices dropped during the pandemic, the project was quietly shut down.

Now, NRG has applied for a new pollution permit to revive Petra Nova as part of the broader CCS expansion. Once again, the process nearly slipped by the public unnoticed—until community leaders like Haley Schulz stepped in.

Haley is raising her voice for Thompsons and for all the communities sidelined in decisions about CCS. She’s organizing, demanding transparency, and insisting that Fort Bend residents deserve more than pollution and false solutions.

🎥 Watch our conversation with Haley to hear what it means to stand up against legacy polluters and a new wave of carbon waste infrastructure.

📢 Want to support? Take action by submitting a public comment to defend Texas’ groundwater from new CCS threats: Click here to submit your comments to the Railroad Commission TODAY!