Environmental group says Texas fails to hold repeat polluters accountable for unexpected emissions

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Greater than 21,000 surprising air pollution releases by Texas corporations have launched over 400,000 tons of air air pollution in Texas from 2016 to 2022, and corporations in lower than 1% of those instances have been pressured by the Texas Fee on Environmental High quality to seek out the foundation trigger and take preventive motion, in keeping with a brand new report.

The report by the Environmental Integrity Undertaking, dubbed the “The Polluter’s Playbook — How Loopholes and Lax Enforcement Hurt Air High quality in Texas,” claims that the TCEQ has not been doing sufficient to carry corporations accountable for surprising air pollution releases.

The examine targeted on air pollution that’s unexpectedly launched throughout an accident, a facility shutdown or startup or throughout upkeep. Such emissions are separate from what corporations are allowed to launch beneath their TCEQ permits.

The report discovered that solely 119 out of 21,769 unplanned emissions occasions have been designated “extreme” by the TCEQ. Tagging an occasion as “extreme” implies that corporations are required to research and pinpoint the foundation causes of the occasion and submit a plan outlining how they’ll stop comparable releases sooner or later.

However the report’s authors discovered that there are extra surprising occasions that ought to have been titled “extreme.” The report discovered that 1,634 of the surprising emissions lasted longer than per week, which far surpasses the restrict that the TCEQ considers “extreme.”

Gabriel Clark-Leach, senior legal professional for the Environmental Integrity Undertaking and the report’s lead creator, informed The Texas Tribune that the present system in Texas “offers polluters certainty” that if an accident causes a launch of air pollution, they won’t be fined. This provides corporations little incentive to stop future releases, he mentioned.

“The system that TCEQ implements, it isn’t designed to guard the individuals,” Clark-Leach mentioned. “It isn’t designed to guard air high quality. …Vigorous enforcement of air pollution management necessities isn’t going to destroy the financial system. It’s going to be good for the general public.”

TCEQ didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In keeping with a 2019 examine by the EIP and Surroundings Texas, surprising emissions occasions in Texas brought about about 42 deaths per 12 months for these ages 65 and older along with creating $250 million in damages yearly.

“I don’t suppose it’s appreciated simply how huge the general public security risk is,” Clark-Leach mentioned. “You might have a scenario the place these operators don’t actually have a robust monetary incentive from the regulatory aspect of issues to keep up their gear and function it correctly … It actually places the general public in hurt’s approach.”

The report additionally acknowledged that TCEQ has not designated any firm as a repeat or “power” offender resulting from quite a few surprising emissions since 2017. But 29 Texas services have reported not less than 100 emission occasions and 20 have reported not less than 120 in that interval. A power offender designation permits the state to impose heftier fines on the businesses and would make it more durable for corporations to get state authorization for initiatives sooner or later.

The report additionally discovered that nearly half of the “extreme” emissions occasions occurred in Harris County and got here from simply 5 services.

The report’s authors referred to as for extra corporations to be labeled power polluters and for extra occasions be dubbed “extreme.” Additionally they mentioned Texas shouldn’t enable polluters to flee harsher penalties by claiming the air pollution releases have been out of their management and reported to TCEQ.

“The company that’s purported to be defending our surroundings and public well being and the state is failing to try this,” mentioned Luke Metzger, the chief director of Surroundings Texas. “We want far higher adjustments from the Legislature to power TCEQ to correctly maintain polluters accountable and shield common Texans from this lethal air pollution.”

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