Assessment on TX Environmental Regulators Released (TCEQ)

[sonias]

Texas Tribine 11/18/10
Assessment on TX Environmental Regulators Released

The long-awaited Sunset Advisory Commission staff report on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is out — and it ducks some of the most controversial questions surrounding the agency.

The headline-grabbing fights between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the TCEQ over air-pollution permitting are "ultimately high-level political and policy issues that do not easily lend themselves to objective staff-level analysis and solution," the report states.

Instead, the report focused on "operational" aspects of the TCEQ. Among the principal recommendations: transferring responsibility for making recommendations to address groundwater pollution near oil and gas drilling sites to the Railroad Commission (both agencies currently have a claim to this); shifting regulation of water and wastewater rates from the TCEQ to the Public Utility Commission; improving the Commission's effectiveness in evaluating a company's past compliance history (a useful tool for deciding whether to grant additional permitting requests by the company); continuing to crack down on groundwater contamination from underground oil storage tanks, the state's largest source of groundwater pollution; improving TCEQ's ability to manage surface water quantity in the event of drought; and clarifying some aspects of its enforcement process and penalties.

Completely worthless agency. I hope the sunset process ends up gutting it. Texans would be better off without it. Let the EPA decide permitting in Texas.

[sonias]

1. Environmental, oil agencies told to be tougher on violators

Statesman 11/18/10
Environmental, oil agencies told to be tougher on violators

Twin reports legislative investigators released Thursday found that the state's environmental and oil and gas agencies lack penalty policies stringent enough to fully protect the environment and public health.

Sunset Advisory Commission investigators found that penalties at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas drilling and which came in for more pointed criticism, fail to act as effective deterrents against pollution, echoing long-held criticisms of the agencies.

(snip)
If there was a theme to the reports by the Sunset commission, which regularly evaluates state agencies to determine whether they should continue to exist, it was that penalties should be stiffer. Investigators found that statutory limits on administrative penalties "prevent (the environmental commission) from taking effective enforcement action, and appropriately sanctioning the most severe environmental violations."

Nearly 10 years after its last sunset review, in which the Legislature created a structure to measure the compliance history of polluters, the agency still uses a "rigid, one-size-fits-all approach" that "does not accurately measure performance."

:kick:

[sonias]

2. Sunset Commission Punts on TCEQ Reform

Texas Observer 11/18/10
Sunset Commission Punts on TCEQ Reform

Calling the just-released Sunset Commission report on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality a whitewash might be going a bit too far. But not by much. The report studiously avoids any substantive discussion of many of the real problems roiling the agency, instead reducing them to "controversies" that won't be discussed – or as the Sunset staff delicately put it, TCEQ has been "embroiled in several controversies that complicate the assessment of its performance."

For example, instead of assessing whether it's appropriate for TCEQ to be the only state environmental agency to refuse to implement the EPA's greenhouse gas regulations, the Sunset staff writes it off as "ultimately high-level political and policy issues that do not easily lend themselves to objective staff-level analysis and solution. ... Sunset staff simply could not insert itself into such complex negotiations and sensitive legal disputes related to TCEQ’s air permitting program."

Translation: We're not going there. I suppose it's understandable that the Sunset Commission doesn't want to tread into highly-politicized territory. That would mean perhaps calling into question the wisdom of Perry's states'-rights and anti-fed campaign where environmental matters are concerned.

:(

[sonias]

3. An older article but good reference

AAS 11/7/10
Texas environmental keeps soft touch in regulating industry
Legislative review likely to air what observers say are major issues lingering since 2003 audit.

The agency's coziness with industry and its reliance on weak penalties continue unabated, abetted by state lawmakers. And its laissez-faire regulatory style has led to an unprecedented threat by the Environmental Protection Agency to take over the state's permitting of industries that pollute the air.

In the latest example of the sort of emission "events" that have concerned critics, a BP refinery in Texas City — the company's largest in the world — pumped 500,000 pounds of toxic chemicals in the air, including cancer-causing benzene, after a piece of equipment broke. Rather than taking the expensive step of shutting down production to make repairs, engineers tried for 40 days to burn the chemicals off.

(snip)
Fines are 'peanuts'

(snip)
"Companies are not going to comply if it's cheaper to violate the law," said Wendy Wagner, who teaches environmental law at the University of Texas. "You're really not zapping them enough to get them to come into compliance in the future. You're actually doing the opposite, if they act as rational profit maximizers."

Captured worthless agency!

[white cloud]

4. Thanks sonia

You are right on top of it.
Then look at the mess BP made in the gulf.
Then the Apology Barton sent him.

K&R

[white cloud]

5. Perry named chairman of oil group that opposes climate change legislation

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a voice against climate change legislation, named Gov. Rick Perry chairman.

Perry, who doubts humans contribute to climate change, has used the issue to campaign for reelection. In a speech to IOGCC members in Biloxi, Miss ., he called a climate change bill being considered by Congress "the single largest tax in the history of our nation," and warned the bill would trigger massive job losses and inflation.
http://energyandenvironmentblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/10/perry-named-chairman-of-oil-gr.html




Kerry-Lieberman climate bill would require disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals
http://energyandenvironmentblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/kerry-lieberman-climate-bill-w.html





Hydraulic fracturing amendment withdrawn, but spurs heated debate
http://energyandenvironmentblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/hydraulic-fracturing-amendment.html

[sonias]

6. They are in it up to their filthy hands

Oil keeps their palms greased so they keep letting polluters foul everything.