The Houston Chronicle
www.chron.com

House OKs phase-out of pollution exemptions

By BILL DAWSON
April 20, 2001

The state House voted Thursday to phase out grandfathered plants' 30-year-old exemption from air pollution permits -- a contentious issue in three successive sessions of the Legislature.

In a separate action on the same far-reaching bill, lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to remove a 55 mph speed limit from the state's new smog-reduction plan for the Houston area.

The bill, designed to reform operations of the state's principal environmental agency, was passed by the House after a debate that began in the morning and lasted until 10 p.m.

The Texas issue of air pollution from grandfathered plants reverberated in last year's presidential campaign. As governor, President Bush championed a 1999 bill that allowed these older plants to volunteer for emission permits, which often require stricter emission controls. Democrats blasted Bush for that stand during his race for the White House.

With no major plants even applying for the voluntary permits through last year, key lawmakers predicted at the start of this year's session that they would finally end the permit exemption for facilities built before 1971.

House members' action to do so came as an addition to a much broader bill to overhaul the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.

This amendment's author, Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, said it would provide "a mechanism to eliminate grandfathering in the state of Texas," focusing first on Houston and other metropolitan areas that violate national pollution standards.

A prominent environmentalist denounced the Chisum measure, however, as "a huge blow to air quality in Texas."

Tom "Smitty" Smith, state director of Public Citizen, said many emission cuts required by the amendment would not come soon enough to help Houston, Dallas and Beaumont meet their federal deadline in 2007 for lowering smog levels.

State smog plans adopted last year include equally strict requirements for grandfathered and permit-holding plants within the three metropolitan areas.

But Chisum's measure would give grandfathered plants outside these smog-violation zones until 2007 to obtain permits, with pollution cuts coming after that date.

Environmental officials say emissions from industrial plants outside the metropolitan areas add to smog levels within their boundaries.

The House rejected a competing amendment by Rep. Zeb Zbranek, D-Liberty, to require grandfathered plants statewide to apply for permits after the voluntary permit program expires this September.

The overall TNRCC bill, authored by Rep. Fred Bosse, D-Houston, authorizes continued operations of the agency, which has been undergoing a sunset review.

Bosse has said its centerpiece reform will end the TNRCC's reliance on "command-and-control" regulation. Instead, the agency would ease regulatory burdens for businesses with the best compliance records.

Environmental groups have concentrated much of their lobbying effort in this year's Legislature on the TNRCC bill. Ken Kramer, state Sierra Club director, said the House-approved version "makes some significant improvements on the status quo."

Legislators introduced dozens of amendments on a range of environmental issues.

One such proposal by Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, would have set a 65-mph floor for any speed limit in the TNRCC's smog plan for Houston. But Chisum and Bosse warned that this would increase the risk of federal disapproval for the entire smog plan, and House members voted down Talton's amendment.

One successful amendment, by Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, would strengthen the TNRCC's regulation of accidental air pollution releases by industrial plants.

Such "episodic" emissions have long prompted complaints by residents of areas near and downwind of such plants. Experts suspect they also lead to some of Houston's violations of the national health standard for ozone, smog's main ingredient.

Also approved was an amendment ordering the TNRCC to consider the combined effects of air pollution from existing facilities when deciding whether to allow a new or expanded plant in the same area. Environmentalists and community activists have long campaigned for such a law.

The House also approved an amendment to remove the promotion of economic development from the TNRCC's official mission statement, leaving pollution control as its sole function.

The Senate still must approve its version of the TNRCC reauthorization bill.