EDF Calls Governor's Voluntary Pollution Reduction Plan "Too Little, Too Late"

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today released a report, “Too Little, Too Late,” which finds that after one year the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission’s (TNRCC) voluntary pollution reduction program for many industrial facilities has done very little to improve air quality in Texas. The report includes comprehensive analyses of company pollution emissions records and permits which have been filed with the TNRCC. All of the companies were allowed to preview the EDF analysis and any inconsistency between TNRCC records and company records were resolved by adopting the company position.

In November of 1997 Governor George W. Bush announced that many so-called “grandfathered” industrial facilities in Texas, which were in existence before the 1971 Clean Air Act, would begin to voluntarily reduce their emissions. These facilities were exempted from the state’s clean air standards and permitting requirements. Today many of these grandfathered facilities remain unpermitted but continue to operate and are responsible for nearly 900,000 tons of pollutants released into Texas’ air.

By October of this year, Governor Bush’s office stated their initiative had “already resulted in dozens of plants reducing emissions the equivalent to the smog of 500,000 vehicles” (Dallas Morning News, Oct. 21, 1998). The emissions from 500,000 vehicles are roughly equivalent to 25,000 tons of emissions per year.

“Our analysis shows that only three of the companies have made any real cuts in emissions,” said Jim Marston, director of EDF’s Texas office. “And instead of the 25,000 tons a year that the governor says have been cut, the actual reduction is only one-sixth of that claimed.

“While the Governor has prompted some companies to think seriously about cleaning up their facilities, this program is not solving the problem,” Marston said. “This voluntary initiative has been held out as one of the crown jewels of the state’s environmental program, but on closer examination, so far it appears to be just cubic zirconium.”

The EDF report recommends three specific changes to the program to assure its success, including a deadline for ending the grandfather exemption, and requiring measurable reductions of emissions beyond what is expected by other regulatory requirements.

Read the full report.