The desire to coddle polluters is strong in this one. A Texas-led coalition of energy-producing states has asked the Supreme Court to hear a case involving the Obama administration’s efforts to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. The petition, which was filed last week, comes 10 months after a three-judge panel of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Clean Air Act’
Soot
We have it. What are we going to do about it? Harris County, long known for smog, will need to clamp down on another harmful type of air pollution for the first time under new rules imposed by federal regulators Friday. The Environmental Protection Agency set a stricter standard for tiny particulate matter, or soot, [...]
Count tells EPA to review flex permits
Score one for Texas. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s disapproval of Texas’ Flexible Permits program was not supported by the Clean Air Act. Under the Flexible Permits program, which had been in place since 1994, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality put a cap on allowed [...]
That other big lawsuit
In case you missed it, there was another big ruling last week that will have a profound effect on Texas. A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases pose a public health threat and require potentially costly limits from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources. In [...]
“Flex permit” plants agree to follow EPA guidelines
Somehow, the world continued to rotate on its axis afterward. The unique way Texas regulates air pollution from refineries, chemical plants and other major industries is no more — for now. The EPA said Tuesday all 136 industrial plants with state-issued permits that do not meet federal Clean Air Act requirements have agreed to apply [...]
More Texas v. EPA
The stakes keep getting higher. The EPA has threatened dozens of Texas refiners and chemical and plastic makers with penalties if they don’t begin taking steps to bring their air pollution permits into compliance with federal law by late December. The blunt threat was made in a recent letter by the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator [...]
Texas thumbs its nose at the feds again
Why bother to secede when all you need to do is disobey? Texas has refused to meet new federal greenhouse gas emission rules that go into effect in January, the latest anti-Washington move in an ongoing battle that could halt new construction at the nation’s largest refineries and other industry in Texas. The refusal to [...]
Lawmakers ask TCEQ to help plants comply with EPA
This is a good idea. After a lobbying push by oil giants, a bipartisan group of Texas legislators have asked state environmental regulators to quickly solve a permit dispute with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that has left some of the nation’s largest oil refineries in operating limbo. A letter signed by 46 legislators is [...]
State sues the EPA again
Round and round we go… Texas has sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency for the second time in six weeks, escalating a feud over the state’s rules for air pollution from refiners and other large industries. State Attorney General Greg Abbott said Monday he filed a petition with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, [...]
EPA goes after more permits
Good for them. The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it was taking over the issuance of operating permits for two more Texas facilities — Chevron Phillips Cedar Bayou and Garland Power and Light — further escalating the federal-state fight over air quality regulations. “The state has refused up to this point to issue good permits, [...]
Texas sues the EPA
I suppose this was inevitable. Texas filed a federal court challenge Monday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to reject part of the state’s air-quality program. [...] State Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office — in a statement accompanying the announcement of the petition being filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals in [...]
TCEQ versus EPA
This fight between the TCEQ and the EPA, or more broadly between polluters and people who like to breathe, has been coming for a long time. Environmentalists are excited by the EPA’s new aggressive posture and hope it prompts an overhaul of the TCEQ and Texas environmental regulation in the sunset process. Former TCEQ Commissioner [...]
Here comes the EPA
No one can say they weren’t warned. Objecting to how Texas regulates air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it is taking over the issuance of an operating permit for a Corpus Christi refinery and could step in at some 39 other major facilities across the state. “I think the writing will be [...]