By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-862094.mp3
Dallas, TX –
The shift in Washington from Bush to Obama has resulted in new scrutiny of Texas environmental practices. KERA's Shelley Kofler reports environmental activists believe they're now being heard.
As Texas Governor, then as President, George Bush wanted to clean up the air through programs that asked industry to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gases. Most didn't.
Obama is pushing climate change legislation that would force emission reductions at many Texas plants by capping the amount of greenhouse gases industries release within a region.
Obama's new E-P-A administrators are also challenging the way Texas issues air permits, and that has energized clean-air activists with Public Citizen and the Sierra Club. They gathered in downtown Dallas Tuesday.
Hernandez/Sierra Club: We are kicking off a statewide tour this week to applaud bold action from the EPA ruling
Here's what environmentalists are cheering: An EPA ruling that claims Texas' air permitting standards are so flexible and record keeping so vague that plants can circumvent federal clean air requirements. The EPA has given the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the TCEQ, 60 days to justify its practices. If it can't Texas plants could eventually face sanctions or lose their federal operating permits.
The TCEQ's Deputy Director of Permitting Richard Hyde defends the state's approval process. He says Texas is unique.
Hyde: We permit probably more facilities than any other state in the country, from oil and gas industries to power industries to steel mills to agricultural facilities. We have to have a rule process that's consistent and is protective of public health and is consistent with federal law, but acknowledges the diversities the state of Texas has that other states just do not have.
But the Sierra Club's Eva Hernandez says Texas is simply out of step, and the biggest problem is coal fired utility plants.
Hernandez: For years the TCEQ has been issuing air quality permits for coal fired plants that should be thrown out because of the illegal permitting process through which they were received
Ryan Rittenhouse of Public Citizen says environmentalists now want the EPA to go a step further.
Rittenhouse: Make EPA put a moratorium on all new coal plants in Texas until they can come under regulation.
Texas currently has 17 operating coal plants. Permits for another eleven are pending before the state's TCEQ.