News Release

EPA orders Texas to cut other states' pollution

A federal rule announced Thursday could force a substantial number of Texas power plants to add more pollution controls to reduce emissions that contribute to health-threatening smog.

News Release

EPA to Save As Many As 1700 Lives in Texas With New Clean Air Protections

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a historic clean air standard to cut deadly smog- and soot-forming pollution from power plants in the eastern half of the country.  EPA estimates that the rule will save between 670 - 1700 lives in Texas in 2014, and as many as 34,000 lives nationally.

News Release | Environment Texas

San Antonio Power Plant Expected to Be Retired

SAN ANTONIO – Environment Texas hailed the expected announcement today by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro that the city-owned CPS Energy will retire the polluting Deely power plant by the year 2018 and replace its power with additional investments in solar energy. According to research by Environment Texas, in 2009, the Deely plant emitted 3657 tons of nitrogen oxide, a key precursor to smog pollution. The two Deely smokestacks join with the two “Spruce” units to make up the Calaveras Power Station, which an April Environment Texas report found ranked 11th out of the state’s 20 power plants for mercury pollution.  And according to a study by the Clean Air Task Force, power plant pollution in Bexar County is linked to 282 asthma attacks and 11 deaths every year. Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger released the following statement:

News Release

Texas House Approves "Fracking" Chemical Disclosure Bill

Today the Texas House of Representatives voted to approve one of the nation’s first requirements on oil and gas companies to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”). Hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling – a form of natural gas and oil extraction rapidly spreading across Texas – poses serious potential for harm to our environment and our health.

News Release

Pain at the Pump Means Billions in Profits for America’s Biggest Polluters

With gas prices nearing $4 per gallon across Texas, the top four oil companies in the United States announced today that their first quarter profits total $28 billion – including $7 billion in profits for BP, the company responsible for last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.  

News Release

House Votes to Weaken Rights of Citizens' to Fight Pollution

The House of Representatives today voted 107 to 38 for legislation which significantly weakens the public’s ability to contest permits for nearby polluting facilities which pose risks to public health and the environment. Amendments to legislation reauthorizing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (HB 2694) fundamentally altered the contested case process by reducing legal rights and increasing legal burdens of Texans challenging permits to pollute.

News Release

Texas Power Plants Number 1 for Smog-Forming Pollution

Texas’s power plants led the nation in smog-forming pollution from power plants in 2009, according to the new Environment Texas report, Dirty Energy’s Assault on Our Health: Ozone Pollution. The report found that power plants in Texas - such as Luminant Energy’s Martin Lake Power Plant and NRG’s Limestone Generating Station - emitted 138,576 tons for smog-forming pollution in 2009. The report comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to finalize a standard in July to help reduce smog-forming pollution.

News Release

U.S. Senate Rejects Assault on Texas’ Public Health and Environment

The U.S. Senate today rejected a House-passed funding bill that included sweeping attacks on many of Texas’ core environmental and public health programs.  The bill—H.R. 1, summarized below—would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from cleaning up a variety of dangerous pollutants, saving consumers billions of dollars annually at the gas pump through clean car standards, and protecting the drinking water supplies for more than 117 million Americans. The U.S. House passed the bill on February 19, and the Senate today rejected it by a vote of 44-56. 

News Release

Senators Cornyn and Hutchison Sign onto New Attack on Texans’ Public Health & Environment

Senators Cornyn and Hutchison yesterday joined Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) in introducing a bill that wages a sweeping assault on Texans’ public health and the Clean Air Act.  The new bill is in line with similar recent attacks on America’s clean air and clean water, including the original funding bill passed by the House of Representatives on February 19, which blocks EPA’s limits on dangerous carbon dioxide pollution.

News Release

U.S. House Launches Largest Assault on Public Health, Clean Air & Clean Water in Years

Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed a funding bill that amounts to the biggest attack on clean air and clean water in recent history, according to Environment Texas. 

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