From the introduction:

On its surface, Texas’ air quality is an issue so intricate in its detail and so sensitive to our fickle Texas weather as to confound even the most committed observer. Our state environmental agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), is tasked with not only understanding our state’s air but with regulating it to ensure that its quality does not pose a threat to human health or environmental integrity. This regulation entails an enormous effort that includes air monitoring, health advisories, toxicological sampling and air modeling research. The foundation of air quality regulation in Texas as it is in any other state, however, is permitting and the effective enforcement of those permits.

The current review of TCEQ by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission provides the opportunity to both assess the agency’s overall effectiveness at regulating air quality and to identify potential improvements. This review could hardly have been more timely. The state of Texas is at present beset by more environmental challenges than at possibly any other time in its history. From chronic toxic air pollution in residential areas to dwindling water resources, a growing population’s constant encroachment on critical habitat to the nearly overwhelming task of tackling global climate change – the work before our state is immense and requires the swiftest of action.

The accumulation of these environmental challenges, however, should not be taken to indicate that our state environmental agency has been totally incapable of rising to meet these challenges. Over the past decade the TCEQ has achieved a number of important environmental victories in some arenas while it has also exhibited an almost trail-blazing progressiveness in others. Examples of these include innovative funding programs to reduce NOx and Particulate Matter emissions from diesel engines in ozone non-attainment areas to use of the newest emissions monitoring and measuring technologies for major industrial facilities.

There are, in fact, likely very few current challenges with which the TCEQ should not be able to effectively grapple given its financial resources and statutory authorities. For a mixture of reasons, however, our state agency at times seems incapable of meeting many challenges in a straightforward and efficient enough manner to effectively protect the health of our citizens and the environmental integrity of our state’s natural resources. The TCEQ will continue to fight an uphill battle against such existing and future challenges until it creates an air permitting program that is reasonable and efficient and an enforcement structure that is transparent and fair.

The Alliance for a Clean Texas’ (ACT) goal is to provide the Sunset Commission useful insight into TCEQ throughout the review process. As a coalition of environmental and other public interest organizations, our guiding principle is that TCEQ should be as responsive to and inclusive of the public’s needs and concerns as it is to any other stakeholder.

Our guiding principle throughout the Sunset review process is to enhance TCEQ’s ability to serve the needs of the 24 million Texans who currently rely on the agency to protect their health and their environment. We share TCEQ’s goal of “clean air, clean water, and the safe management of waste” and welcome the current Sunset review as an opportunity to achieve this goal more effectively and more reliably.

This paper takes on the issue which consumes the vast majority of TCEQ’s time and efforts – air quality. Subsequent papers will be devoted to other areas such as water quality, governance and waste management.

As part of the Sunset review process, agencies are asked to identify and discuss policy issues in a Self Evaluation Report (SER). TCEQ identified eight policy issues in its SER. Five of those eight coincide with issues presented and discussed in this paper. The issues are:

• SER Issue 1: Should the legislature consider revising the state’s air permitting process?

• SER Issue 2: Should the effectiveness of the current standard for evaluating compliance history in the TCEQ’s permitting and enforcement procedures be evaluated?

• SER Issue 4: Does the TCEQ’s current enforcement authority allow for the expanded use of incentives and innovative projects to achieve compliance, as well as sufficient deterrence to protect the environment?

• SER Issue 5: How should the agency use monitoring activities in its regulatory processes?

• SER Issue 6: Are there any additional avenues, including technological advances, that should be considered to enhance the public’s participation in the TCEQ’s regulatory activities?

Rather than answering each of these issues specifically, this paper groups the identified issues and recommended solutions into the two broad programmatic areas which underlie the majority of TCEQ’s regulatory authority: air permitting and air enforcement.

Our expertise in regulatory processes, coupled with our work with and on behalf of organizations and individuals around the state, provides a unique focus on the public’s role in environmental and public health protection. We hope these recommendations are adopted as the best path forward for the agency charged with protecting so much that is precious to our state.

This week, the TCEQ commissioners have two items on their agenda of particular interest to those who share ACT’s view that the TCEQ’s primary mission should be to protect public health. The first is the decision on the air permit for the Las Brisas pet coke power plant in Corpus Christi. The other is the proposed change in water standards that would allow a far greater concentration of bacteria–including E. Coli–before a stream or river is considered potentially harmful.

The Las Brisas decision is important on several levels. First, and most importantly, if the commissioners decide to grant the permit, Corpus Christi and its surrounding communities will face another major contributor to air pollution. Asthma rates in Corpus Christi are already above the state average. This permit decision also comes at a time when the TCEQ air permitting program is in the spotlight.

ACT has an additional interest in the Las Brisas permit because it’s been the subject of a contested case hearing. In March, the administrative law judges recommended that TCEQ deny the permit. On Wednesday, the TCEQ commissioners have the last word. It is within their power to grant the permit, to deny it, or to remand the case back the the State Office of Administrative Hearings for additional evidence or for a technical review. The point is, the commissioners can choose to accept the decision handed down by the body designated to evaluate these types of cases or to override that decision and grant the permit. If the commissioners were to grant the permit, they would essentially indicate that the contested case process–the public’s most important tool for influencing the permitting process–is more of a formality than an essential process that ensures that the public’s best interests are met.

The decision about bacteria standards in streams and rivers is another opportunity for the commissioners to demonstrate their commitment to public health. Some of the revisions proposed by the staff – over objections from the public – would weaken protections from bacteria pollution and undermine efforts to keep or make Texas water bodies clean enough for swimming, boating, wading, canoeing, kayaking, and other recreational activities. In the middle of another hot summer, Texans need to know that our rivers and streams are safe.

On Wednesday, the TCEQ commissioners have the chance to do the right thing and let Texans know that our health comes first. Here’s hoping that’s what they do.

It’s a time to rethink environmental regulation–how it’s done, by whom, with what type of oversight.

Incredibly, Texas has the opportunity to do just that in the coming year in its review of the state’s environmental and energy agencies.  Unlike the event-driven reviews of federal agencies and departments in response to the Big Branch Mine tragedy in West Virginia and the BP Deepwater oil spill, the review of Texas environmental and energy agencies is already under way as part of the state’s 2010-2011 Sunset review process–the standard assessment of agency effectiveness.

What this means is that the state of Texas is already looking at the agencies charged with protecting our waters, keeping our air clean, regulating oil and gas drilling, and maintaining a healthy environmental for all Texans, today and in the future.  We are fortunate that, in Texas, we do not have to wait for a catastrophic accident to discern how well our state agencies are performing their jobs and to advocate for changes that will make them stronger and more effective.

There have been many articles published about these accidents and how they might have been averted. There will be many more. What’s clear from reading them is the overwhelming regret that safer measures were not taken. As Texas approaches the 2010-2011 Sunset review, from agency self-studies and Sunset staff evaluations to public hearings before the Sunset Commission and final passage of legislation reauthorizing the agencies, we should remember just how important effective environmental protection and regulation really is. And if and when we begin to hear the familiar criticisms that too much regulation costs too much, we should remind our critics that too little regulation can cost far much more.

SB16, SB 545 and SB 541 are on the House Major State Calendar today. As we’ve said on this site repeatedly, this is great news. However, midnight tonight is the deadline for the House to pass Senate bills on second reading. The Alliance for a Clean Texas asks all Texans who want clean air and clean energy to call their representatives immediately and ask them to vote for these three crucial bills.

In the final six days of the 81st Session, the Alliance for a Clean Texas urges all Texas lawmakers to take up clean air, renewable energy, green jobs and other important environmental issues that will make our state healthier and more sustainable. There are still many opportunities for the Texas Legislature to act on behalf of all Texans. It’s time to put the health and future welfare of our state first and make the commitment to clean air and clean energy by passing these three bills.

The challenge: not only is time short (there are only seven days left in the session and 36 hours until all Senate Bills must pass 2nd reading in the House) – the Texas House has come to a virtual standstill over the last four days. The time has come for all Texans to ask their representatives to put aside the partisan issues that are keeping them from taking up the business of our state. There are many extremely important issues that remain undecided at this time. The Alliance for a Clean Texas believes that clean energy is one of the crucial issues that the House must take up before the midnight deadline tomorrow.

Texans want to breathe cleaner air. They want their water to be used sustainably. They want their state to remain a world leader in energy innovation and production. They want their children to grow up to in a state where the jobs of the 21st century economy are plentiful. They want to be proud of their state – for its historic leadership in energy, for its great gifts of natural resources, and for its unique ability to lead our nation (and our world) into a cleaner, healthier future.

Call your representative right now. Ask her or him to vote for both solar bills. To stop stalling. To take action. This person is your representative in Austin. It’s time for all of us to act on behalf of our state. As we all know, what we do in Texas matters. Let’s show the world that Texas is ready to lead the way.

On the renewable energy bills front, SB 545 has been sent to the House Calendars committee. SB 541 has beed reported favorably by the House Committee on State Affairs; the committee report has not yet been filed. ACT has two urgent recommendations on behalf of these bills:

1. ACT urges the House Calendars Committee to place SB 545 on the calendar for Major State Affairs at its next meeting.
2. ACT urges the House Committee on State Affairs to take all necessary steps to have the committee report on SB 541 in the House Calendars Committee before its next meeting.

Two more ACT high priority bills are poised to move to the next step. HB 821 (producer TV takeback recycling) was heard in Senate Business and Commerce yesterday afternoon and passed out on a 9-0 vote.  It is now eligible for the Senate Intent calendar; ACT will continue to follow this bill and let supporters know if and when calls to the Lieutenant Governor’s office might be needed.

Finally, SB 184, Senator Watson “no regrets” greenhouse gas bill was reported favorably from House Environmental Regulation yesterday. The next step for this bill is for the committee report to be sent to the House Calendars Committee.

The next step for these three bills is to be placed on the House calendar. ACT urges the members of the House Calendars committee to place SB 545, SB 16 and SB 541 on the calendar before Sunday (the deadline for Senate bills to be heard in the House). The people of Texas expect their lawmakers to take bold action on energy this session. The Texas Legislature could make the 81st Session an historic one for the development of the next great Texas energy industries. While many traditional energy businesses and their allies oppose these bills, the people of Texas know that for Texas to be as strong in the 21st century as it has been in the 20th, it needs to stay ahead of the curve on all energy development.

Another ACT high priority bill reaches the next step in the legislative process tomorrow morning. HB 821, the producer TV takeback bill, will be heard in the Senate Committee of Business & Commerce tomorrow morning. An unusual committee referral (most recycling and landfill bills are referred to Senate Natural Resouces), ACT hopes that the members of Senate B & C can see the value of this timely bill that will help keep more lead, mercury and other hazardous materials out of our landfills.

ACT will continue to follow these bills and post updates on their progress. To receive action alerts from ACT, please sign up for our email list. And to follow bill progress in real-time, sign up to follow ACT on Twitter.

Representative Anchia’s trio of energy efficiency bills remain a top priority. By passing these, the House will enable Texas to adopt a set of efficiency measures that will help lower emissions by decreasing the overall demand for electricity.

Energy Efficiency:

Renewable Energy:

Clean Air:

To receive updates on the debate and votes, follow ACT on Twitter. To receive action alerts on ACT priority legislation, join our mailing list. ]]> http://www.acttexas.org/2009/05/12/important-bills-on-house-calendar-today-may-12/feed/ 0 http://www.acttexas.org/2009/05/11/important-bills-on-house-calendar-today-may-11/ http://www.acttexas.org/2009/05/11/important-bills-on-house-calendar-today-may-11/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 17:17:03 +0000 lize http://www.acttexas.org/?p=972 The following bills are on the General State Calendar today for second reading. Each of the bills addresses an ACT 2009 legislative recommendation.

Energy Efficiency:

Renewable Energy:

Clean Air:

To receive updates on the debate and votes, follow ACT on Twitter. To receive action alerts on ACT priority legislation, join our mailing list.