The Dallas Morning News
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Texas to write emissions plan

Panel will design solutions to warming, review current efforts

08/24/2000

By Randy Lee Loftis

Texas officials agreed Wednesday to write the state's first-ever plan to help combat global warming, which scientists say could mean a hotter, drier North Texas during the 21st century.

The state's top environmental body, the three-member Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, agreed to compile information on the state's greenhouse gas emissions, check the effectiveness of existing state anti-pollution efforts and come up with suggestions for solutions by Dec. 1, 2001.

Five environmental groups filed papers July 3 formally asking the state to monitor so-called greenhouse gases and write a plan for curbing emissions in Texas. The commissioners' action in Austin was in response to the groups' petition.

Nothing in the commissioners' decision would place restrictions on Texas emissions of greenhouse gases. But the research and planning that the commissioners agreed to will start Texas on the road to contributing to a solution, said Tom "Smitty" Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen, a group that lobbies for stronger environmental regulations.

"We think it's a good first step toward admitting that Texas has a carbon addiction problem," said Mr. Smith, whose group was one of those requesting the action.

Texas has about 7 percent of the U.S. population but emits 14 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas, according to a report prepared this year for the World Wildlife Fund and other groups.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says 38 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions in 1997 came from industries – much of it oil refineries, which process about half of the nation's petroleum. A number of studies conclude that Texas is also No. 1 in the potential for developing renewable energy, such as solar or wind power.

Although the Legislature authorized action to fight global warming in 1991, the state has had no formal plan.

The commissioners instructed the agency's staff to compile state and federal information on carbon dioxide and methane emissions in Texas and create a system to track reductions.

State officials also will find out what the federal government and other states are doing about global warming and assess current scientific research, along with potential effects and solutions. And they will try to determine whether existing pollution-reduction programs have helped cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The state plan, due in 14 months, will also make recommendations on whether Texas' environmental rules need to be changed to help fight global warming.

Texas' long coastline and other geographical features make the state especially vulnerable to global-warming effects such as higher sea levels, worse hurricane storm surges and drought, scientists say.

Scientists link a hotter climate to a buildup of gases in the atmosphere that trap the sun's heat. Emissions come from industries, cars, farms, homes and the loss of forests.

The U.S. government reported in June that the nation's average temperature rose by 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The report said a larger rise, possibly 5 to 10 degrees, could come over the next 100 years

According to computer simulations, the July heat index – combining temperature and humidity – could rise by 25 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 100 years from North Texas to southern Kansas.

In addition to Public Citizen, groups that requested the Texas plan included the Sierra Club, the Texas Campaign for the Environment, the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition and Clean Water Action.