Bill Could Make It Even Harder to Oppose TCEQ Air Quality Permits
It's already hard enough to stop a permit application from going through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, but fighting an air quality permit may get even more difficult if a newly filed bill makes it through the state legislature.
State Sen. Craig Estes, a Republican from Wichita Falls, has cooked up a bill that, if it makes it through the 85th Biennial Legislative Session, could make it even more difficult for people protesting air quality permit applications by consolidating the comment periods required for each of the hundreds of permit applications TCEQ receives each year.
The current law in Texas gives people two comment periods where they can share how they feel about a proposed air quality permit. The first comment period starts up shortly after a company sends an permit application to the TCEQ and the second one starts after TCEQ officials publish a draft of the permit.
Senate Bill 1045 wants to streamline that process, allowing TCEQ to consolidate the two comment periods if a company has finished its application and the agency officials have managed to draft a permit within 15 days. (The proposed legislation makes no mention of the federal Environmental Protection Agency's mandated 30-day comment period, so we don't know if that would start once the application is filed or once the draft permit is posted. But either way, 15 days would be cut from the comment period time.)
Read more: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/bill-could-make-it-even-harder-to-oppose-tceq-air-quality-permits-9258451
