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| AUSTIN, TX – July 15, 2010 – Three anti-pollution groups today notified the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) of their intent to sue the electric power supplier for more than 10,000 violations of the federal Clean Air Act at LCRA’s coal-fired power plant near LaGrange in Fayette County. The notice of intent was served today by the Environmental Integrity Project, Texas Campaign for the Environment and Environment Texas. | |
| Groups Allege Over 10 Million Pounds of Illegal Pollution From Baytown, TX Complex, In Excess of Already Weak “Flexible Permit” Limits Benzene, Butadiene, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxides, Carbon Monoxide Among Pollutants at Issue in Case | |
| Austin- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today formally disapproved the “flexible permitting” rules that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) uses to administer the state’s air quality program. In the last few months, EPA has requested that three Texas facilities receive their permit from the federal government due to the agency’s objection to Texas’ permitting process. | |
| Clean air is the top priority for our members and it’s no surprise - Texas has some of the dirtiest air in the country. That’s why we were very pleased for the EPA to re-open this issue. Ozone is a powerful pollutant that can burn our lungs and airways, causing health effects ranging from coughing and wheezing to asthma attacks and even premature death. Children, senior citizens, and people with lung disease are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of ozone. | |
| DALLAS – Environmental advocates across several states are applauding the Obama Administration’s choice of Dr. Al Armendariz to lead Region 6 of the Environmental Protection Agency, which includes Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Armendariz, an engineering professor at Southern Methodist University, has worked with diverse constituencies ranging from corporations to citizens groups and has published dozens of studies on myriad environmental issues throughout his career. His appointment garnered high praise from the environmental community. | |
| HOUSTON - Sierra Club and Environment Texas filed a lawsuit today in federal district court against Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP. The suit, coming on the heels of the groups' landmark settlement with Shell Oil Company in June targeting illegal air emissions arising from so-called "upset" events, claims that Chevron Phillips has repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act at its Cedar Bayou chemical plant in Baytown, Texas. The suit alleges the company released more than a million of pounds of excess air pollutants since 2003, including toxic chemicals such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene. | |
| HOUSTON - Sierra Club and Environment Texas announced today that they have filed a proposed Consent Decree in federal court that would settle their Clean Air Act lawsuit against Shell Oil Company and two affiliates. | |
| AUSTIN, TX—The Bush EPA yesterday announced a flawed new national air quality standard for ozone “smog†and called for sweeping changes to the Clean Air Act that threaten to fundamentally weaken one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, according to Environment Texas. | |
| Sierra Club and Environment Texas filed a lawsuit today in federal district court against Shell Oil Company and several affiliates. The suit – the first case in Texas in which citizen groups are suing to stop illegal air emissions arising from so-called “upset†events – claims that Shell has repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act at its Deer Park, Texas, oil refinery and chemical plant, resulting in the release of millions of pounds of excess air pollutants over the past five years, including toxic chemicals such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene. | |
| AUSTIN—Environment Texas today applauded the cancellation of plans by TXU to build eight coal-fired power plants. Environment Texas also expressed concern that three new coal-fired plants remained on the drawing board in Texas, and as many as 140 other plants across the country. | |
| Today is a good day for the breathers of Texas. We applaud Senator Averitt for his leadership in bringing blue skies back to Texas. Air pollution has been making Texas families sick for too long and SB 12 is a critical step to making our air safe to breathe again. We need to get some of the dirtiest cars and trucks off Texas roads and it’s time the Legislature appropriate the money that was intended for just that purpose. By requiring greater energy efficiency, SB 12 will also reduce pollution from the electricity sector. | |
| AUSTIN-A coalition of environmental, religious, sportsmen and parents groups announced their agenda on Thursday for the upcoming legislative session. Topping the list was a push to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy as alternatives to the construction of 19 additional coal-fired power plants. | |
| “Air pollution is literally making Texas families sick, yet little has been done in Texas to reduce emissions from its largest source – cars and light trucks,†said Luke Metzger, Director of Environment Texas. “Using readily available technology, automakers could easily put Texas on the road to clean, healthy air.†| |
| Energy companies are planning to build over 150 coal-fired power plants in locations across the United States, according to a report released today by Environment Texas. Far from enhancing America’s energy security, the wave of proposed plants – most of them powered by dirty, last-generation technologies – would dramatically increase global warming emissions and pose energy security and economic problems. | |
| A federal appeals court today stuck down a highly controversial air pollution rule that was a centerpiece of the Bush administration’s environmental agenda. The 2003 rule gutted key provisions of the Clean Air Act, known as New Source Review, that require power plants and other industrial sources of air pollution to install modern pollution controls when they make physical or operational changes that increase emissions. | |
| Some of Texas’ largest industrial facilities failed to report 80 percent of their actual emissions of such regulated pollutants as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and smog-forming chemicals to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) during 2003, according to the nonprofit and nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). | |
| A new analysis of government data released today by the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG) found for the first time that the West’s major river basins are getting warmer, at exactly the time of year water needs to be stored as snow to meet the region’s water needs. | |
| Pollution from coal-fired power plants causes 6,915 asthma attacks, 334 non-fatal heart attacks, and 203 premature deaths each year in Houston, according to a new Clear the Air report released today by the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG). | |