| The following is the second installment of a Left of College Station series: The Issues We Face, an in depth look at the issues that progressive activist will face in the coming year and the coming 111th Congress and 81st Texas Legislature.
The environment is a critical issue that facing progressive activist; this issue includes global climate change to protecting our environment here in Texas. The most dangerous thing about climate change and the affect that we are having on our environment is that it is unprecedented and unpredictable; there are not models that can predict what may happen in the future and if we do not act we will find out what the worst possible outcomes may be.
According to the Department of Energy Texas produces and consumes more electricity than any other State; however, Texas also leads the Nation in wind-powered generation capacity. With the resources that Texas possesses it is in the unique position to be one of the leaders of alternative energy, and it could also be one of the leaders in addressing climate change.
As Katherine Haenschen of the Burnt Orange Report reported, lawmakers such as Phil King are standing in the way of progress and are disseminating false information about pollution and climate change.
While the "clean coal" lobby spends millions on advertising, without actually having one "clean coal" power plant, and oil companies continue to spend minuscule amounts on alternative energy research, we must continue to pressure our legislatures to mandate the production of alternative energy and the reduction of green house gas emissions. |
| Environmental Legislation
In the Texas House of Representatives, Representative Brandon Creighton (R-16) has pre-filed two bills pertaining to injection wells. Creighton has not had a favorable record on environment issues, and in 2007 voted for 33% of legislation supported by Environment Texas, 32% of legislation supported by the Texas League of Conservation Voters, and just 12% of legislation supported by the Sierra Club.
HB 177 will create testing requirements for certain commercial injection wells; the applicant for an injection well will be required to "perform on-site monitoring wells to monitor and analyze groundwater quality" and "conduct shallow soil tests." Also, the applicant must "submit to the commission a report of groundwater and soil quality on a regular schedule as required by commission rules; and immediately when a change in quality is detected."
HB 178 (and the companion bill pre-filed by State Representative Robert Nichols (R-3) SB 274) proposes a prohibition on permits for injection wells in specified areas; however, written into the bill are loops holes that could render the prohibition little more than a limitation. The proposed bill would prohibited a permit for an injection well within 2,640 feet (only half a mile) of a residence, church, school, day-care center, surface body of water used for public drinking or water supply, or a dedicated public park. However, the prohibition "does not apply if the residence, church, school, day-care center, surface water body used for a public drinking water supply, or dedicated park is located on property that is owned by the permit applicant and that is adjacent to the well for which the application is filed." A "local government to petition the commission for a rule that restricts or prohibits the siting of a new injection well in an area specified by the petition," however, a local government cannot petition the commission if an application for an injection well has already been filed.
State Senator Rodney Ellis (D-13), who until recently had an below average record on environmental issues but in 2007 received a 100% rating from the Sierra Club and 86% rating from Environment Texas, has pre-filed SB 119 which would require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to implement to the low-emission vehicle program that is "consistent with the California Low-Emission Vehicle program and would apply "only to motor vehicles with a model year of 2012 or later." Ellis also pre-filed SB 132, which would require vehicles that are sold or registered in Texas to have a "label that clearly, distinctly, and legibly discloses the emission standards that are applicable to the vehicle...and any related air pollution emissions information specified by the commission." These labels will include a smog index, a global warming index, and a "brief explanation, prepared by the commission, of the indexes required by this section, including the identification of motor vehicle usage as a primary cause of global warming, and of how emissions of gases from motor vehicles may be reduced."
State Senator Mario Gallegos (D-6), who has an excellent record on environmental issues and received perfect ratings from both the Environment Texas and the Sierra Club in 2007, pre-filed two bills that would affect laws that regulate emissions of air contaminants. SB 171 creates standards by which the TCEQ will measure emissions of air contaminants, standards that will take "into consideration all acute and chronic health effects on a person resulting from exposure to an air contaminant." The bill also requires the TCEQ to "assemble a panel of independent, nationally recognized experts in the fields of toxicology, epidemiology, medicine, and public health to review the commission's effects screening levels and to recommend standards to the commission that comply with the requirements" set forth in the legislation. Also of note is that the panel will "provide opportunities for public comment in conducting the review." The time line of the proposed legislation is to have the panel assembled by January 1, 2010, and that the panel should make recommendations to the TCEQ by July 1, 2011 to be implemented by October 1, 2011, and owners or operators of emissions sources will have until January 1, 2013 to comply.
SB 173 would create regulations for monitoring air contaminant emissions, including requiring the owner or operators of an emissions source to "provide for daily fence-line monitoring of air contaminant emissions from the major source; and make and maintain records on the measurement and monitoring of the emissions." The owner or operator would also have to designate an independent consultant approved by the commission to certify to the commission that the major source is in compliance." However, one of the more important pieces of this legislation would be the creation of an "Air Pollutant Watch List," and would publish notice of and allow public comment on "addition of an air contaminant to or removal of an air contaminant from the air pollutant watch list; or an addition of an area to or removal of an area from the air pollutant watch list."
The task before us is great, because of the enormity of a global problem.
"We seem incapable of grasping what is at stake here, and perhaps it is because so much is at stake." -Jeff Goodell (Author of Big Coal)
Yes we can, beings today.
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