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June 2, 2010

Texas gov. touts air quality week after EPA threat

Associated Press

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — Texas should not be threatened with a takeover of its air quality program but should instead be lauded as the “poster child” for clean air and pollution regulation, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday.

At a warehouse in the heart of the Houston-area petrochemical complex, Perry defended Texas’ efforts to monitor pollution coming from industry and to cut the state’s levels of dangerous pollutants, including a 22 percent reduction in ozone levels and a 46 percent reduction of nitrogen oxide levels since 2000.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s regional director threatened last week to remove Texas’ regulatory authority by midsummer if the state fails to comply with the federal Clean Air Act. The EPA objects to the state’s permitting process, which it says allows industry to emit too many pollutants.

Perry said all Texas’ major cities, except for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, are in compliance with the EPA’s 1997 eight-hour ground level ozone standards and that Houston met the standard for the first time last year.

“I don’t understand the federal response of coming in to the state that should be the poster child, should be the model for this country,” Perry told reporters at a news conference at a Deer Park company that makes fluid sealing products for the petrochemical industry.

Dave Bary, an EPA spokesman in Dallas, said in a statement that Texas’ air permitting program doesn’t meet minimum national standards and allows facilities to pollute the air at levels unacceptable in any other state.

“Our regional office has been working closely with Texas officials to address these deficiencies and will continue to take the steps necessary to ensure that the state’s permitting program will protect the health of all Texas families,” Bary said.

As he did last week, Perry continued to frame the disagreement between the EPA and Texas as a political battle over state rights.

“We will fight it with every breath that we have and every tool that we have available to us,” he said.

Bill White, Perry’s Democratic Party opponent in November’s gubernatorial election, criticized the governor for the state possibly losing its regulatory authority and for creating “a controversy for the purposes of political theater and his political career.”

The leader of a Houston-based environmental group who attended Perry’s news conference said Texas’ air quality still has a long way to go.

“I think it’s misleading of (Perry) to say that our air is cleaner than any other state,” said Matthew Tejada of Air Alliance Houston. “Our air has undoubtedly become much cleaner. One thing everybody has to understand is that in the matter of air quality in Texas, especially in Houston, better does not equal good.”

The dispute between the EPA and Texas is largely over the state’s so-called flexible permits, which set a general limit on how much pollutants an entire facility can release. The federal Clean Air Act requires state-issued permits to set limits on each of the dozens of individual production units inside a plant. The EPA says Texas’ system masks pollution and makes it impossible to regulate emissions and protect public health.

Mark Vickery, the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, told reporters Wednesday he was proud of the state’s “tremendous strides ... in cleaning up the air in Texas.”

He said the commission is working on new rules packages to address the EPA’s concerns.

“I’m eager to get back to the drawing board and have constructive law and science-based discussions with the EPA,” he said. “I’m hopeful that cooler heads will prevail.”

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