Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

The State Water Plan May Not be Dead (The Unkillable Zombie of Legislation?)

Going into the 83rd state legislative session, it seemed like the state water plan would swim on through the legislative plumbing faster than Nemo went down that sink drain and onward to freedom and hanging out with some tubular sea turtles, in Finding Nemo. Well, that's just not how things went do ... More >>

Three Legislature Bills Would Loosen Texas' Extraordinarily Loose Pollution Guidelines (Yay?)

Texas law has always been a little loose -- and yes, in this phraseology "loose" is code for kind of slutty -- about environmental regulation, but now the state legislature has a few bills bouncing around during the 83rd legislative session that may make it looser than Lindsey Lohan after some booze ... More >>

As Texas's Drought Continues, Opportunities at Conservation Finally Find Discussion

The rain came last week. Finally. It came in droves, surging over the curbs, washing away the oil and grime and refuse into a filthy chemical blend. It came for hours. It was needed, in a state suffering a drought that has covered nearly every city and town and farm Texas knows. And then it let up, ... More >>

Judge Finds State at Fault for Whooping Cranes' Deaths, But Abbott Seeks Stay

In the mid-1940s, only 16 Whooping Cranes remained in the wild. Hunted for their cream-colored plumage, shot and killed for pure sport, the largest bird in North America stood all but extinct. Presaged by Passenger Pigeons and the Carolina Parakeet, it seemed that American frontiersmen would once mo ... More >>

TCEQ Says No to Millions of Dollars in Tax Breaks for Valero

​Area school districts and cities had to be breathing a big sigh of relief today as news came out that the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said "no" to handing out large tax breaks to Valero that would have made things even worse for cash-strapped government ... More >>

Yes, That's Wildfire Smoke You're Seeing and Smelling (UPDATE: HISD Cancels/Re-Schedules Some Games)

Photo by GalgenTXThis is the Bastrop fire, but smoke is smoke.​The weather here is pretty perfect right now, in terms of heat and humidity. But in terms of dryness, it's still a bitch. You probably noticed a smoky smell this morning and even some haze. And yes, the source is probably what you ... More >>

EPA Hits Texas, Other States With Tougher Air Pollution Regulations: Cue Outrage From Rick Perry, Greg Abbott

Feds up the ante in battle against TCEQ, Perry​The Environmental Protection Agency announced stricter rules on air pollution, rules that will especially affect Texas, whose politicians have been fighting tenaciously to avoid federal regulation of the state's many pollution producers. The EPA ... More >>

Too Much Pavement

Houston's strip malls increase heat, pollution.

Fetuses In A Public Landfill: Not The Way It's Supposed To Happen

Just no​We all know that the souls of aborted babies go to live with Jesus, but what of their earthly remains? Well, in Texas, they legally can't be disposed of in landfills -- which is exactly where the remains from two abortion clinics have been going, according to Texas Commission on Enviro ... More >>

Duct Tape Holding Pollution Equipment Together: So Bad Even Texas AG Acts

Greg Abbott goes after polluters!!! Take that, Obama!!​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott took precious time off from suing the federal government to get it to stop forcing Texas to enforce Clean Air provisions in order to do a little Clean Air-ing of his own. Abbott's office charged Gulf Che ... More >>

Rick Perry's Cuts: Good for Polluters, Electricity Companies; Bad for Commissions Who Opposed His Wife's Renovation Plans

Rick Perry, stomping on the Historical Commission​Rick Perry's State of the State speech today made clear that the lamestream media has it all wrong when it comes to the financial health of Texas. "Have the doomsayers forgotten that Texas added more jobs in 2010 than any other state?" he aske ... More >>

Steamrolled

Mom-and-pop industrial plants not as wholesome as they seem.

Titan Gunite: TCEQ Wouldn't Go After Polluter, Maybe AG Will, Now That It's Too Late

Sometimes Mom-and-Pop operations aren't best​There may be more bad news coming down the line for the owners of Titan Gun, a concrete company that had been located in a residential neighborhood in north Houston.In mid-October, Harris County District Court Judge Mike Miller told Titan that it could ... More >>

(No) Surprise: White Stallion Coal Plant Approved By Texas' Air Watchdog

TCEQ says "Great!!" to controversial coal plant​Matagorda County elected officials didn't want it. Local citizens vigorously protested against it. Clean-air advocated spent gobs of time and money trying to fight it, warning that the proposed While Stallion coal-fired plant would cripple Houston's ... More >>

Harris County Sues Chemical Plant Over Carcinogen Release

County attorney steps in where TCEQ won't​It's no secret that when it comes to penalizing industrial plants for violating their emissions permits and endangering public health, TCEQ (the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) is not a very tough sheriff. The state regulatory agency rarely take ... More >>

TCEQ & The EPA: Feds Again Slam Texas' Pollution-Control Efforts

TCEQ: Honeymoon with the feds is definitely over​The EPA took yet another bite out of the Texas air-pollution regulatory system on Tuesday when it decreed that some of state's rules violate federal clean air law.At issue is what's called the New Source Review Program. It deals with the permitting ... More >>

TCEQ, State's Clean-Air "Watchdog," About To Be Sued Over A Local Plant

Austin's power supplier a major polluter, groups say​As the Houston Press has written about, and as the Obama administration has determined, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is a pretty lax watchdog.Now they're going to get sued over it.A coalition of clean-air groups has served forma ... More >>

TCEQ & The Sunset Commission: Texas Environmental Groups Try Working Together

Coming together vs. TCEQ​The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, made up of 12 state legislators who evaluate state agencies every dozen years, is examining the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and will make a recommendation during the next legislative session whether to renew, tweak, or ab ... More >>

Texas' Environmental Agency & The Feds: This Week May Be Crucial

This week's decision will be watched closely​All eyes are on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this week as its three commissioners will decide whether to grant an air permit to a proposed $3 billion petroleum coke-fired power plant in Corpus Christi.The Las Brisas Energy Center has be ... More >>

Rep. Pete Olson, Standing Up Against Those Pesky Pollution Rules

Texas can police its own air, thankyouverymuch.​Republican U.S. Congressman Pete Olson may not officially be the poster boy for the oil and gas industry, but one could argue that he's really bucking for the job. Last week, Olson of Sugar Land announced that he and a few other politicians on Capit ... More >>

Feds To Texas' Environmental Regulators: Good God, You Suck (UPDATED With Rick Perry Saying No, You Suck)

Feds come to the same conclusion we did​The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency smacked the hell out of Texas environmental regulators earlier this week, announcing that the feds will begin taking control over the issuance of operating permits to chemical plants and refineries because the s ... More >>

Blowing Smoke

Could Valero empty the coffers of Texas schools?

Valero's Tax Ploy: Is It Really Doomsday For Schools And Cities?

Are cities and school districts panicking?​Until the day comes when people jump for joy over paying taxes, they will look under every nook and cranny for loopholes that let them save as much as they can. It works the same way for businesses, and you generally never hear about it. But in the past f ... More >>

Is Valero Really Trying To Take Food Out of the Mouths of HISD's Children?

The first step in taking a $1 billion out of the tax rolls?​The Houston ISD school board has spent several sessions now listening to dire warnings from Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett and Superintendent Terry Grier about what may happen if energy company Valero is able to get tax exemption ... More >>

Pre-K In Danger, Tax Rolls Down, HISD Looks For The Rabbit In The Hat

​Houston ISD's tax rolls look to be down 4.32 percent in the next year, with a loss of almost $5 billion in assessed values for 2011 over 2010. Most of the lost money is coming from lowered commercial property values, with the least decrease among residential property owners.Things could be even w ... More >>

A Quiet Hell

Thanks to lax enforcement by TCEQ, plants along the Houston Ship Channel launch tons of toxic gases into our air, and face little penalty even when they exceed pollution limits over and over again.

The State's Environmental Watchdog Sucks

​Four years ago, Houston Mayor Bill White and his environmental policy director Elena Marks didn't think that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was doing a very good job enforcing pollution violations and keeping the area's oil refineries and chemical plants in check. The city had ... More >>

Sunoco -- Doing Whatever It Takes In La Porte

​We have little understanding of how a local chemical manufacturing plant can flaunt state environmental regulations for an entire year and not get called on the carpet for it until nearly two years later, but that describes the goings-on at the Sunoco, Inc., plant in La Porte.At its facility jus ... More >>

Houston's Waterways Are Filled With All Kinds Of Stuff They Shouldn't Be Filled With, Group Says

​Stay the hell away from Houston's waterways. Don't swim in them and for heaven's sake don't eat the fish.That was essentially the message this morning at a news conference held alongside the Houston Ship Channel, hosted by Environment Texas, an environmental advocacy group, which complied data fr ... More >>

ExxonMobil Fined $600,000; We Think They Can Come Up With It

​Let's be honest.There aren't a lot of "bad days" for a global petrochemical company that made a record $45.2 billion profit last year, so we'll just say ExxonMobil had a less than stellar day on Wednesday when state regulators penalized it more than $600,000 for environmental crimes.ExxonMobil's ... More >>

Dow Chemical, Always Helping The Kids. By Polluting The Air

If you worry about pollution -- especially in light on the EPA's latest study of the cancer risk posed by air pollution -- you might see that instead of threatening our lives, air pollution actually helps all of us, especially those of us who are most vulnerable, the kids.For purposes of illustr ... More >>

Dow Chemical Thankful It's In A Pollution-Loving State Like Texas

The Dow Chemical Co. got whacked last week with a $202,325 fine for air pollution violations, but if we had to guess, we'd say the world's second-largest chemical company thanks its lucky stars it does business in a state like Texas, where a history of violations doesn't mean much.In calculating th ... More >>

More Help (The Hard Way) For Retrofitting School Buses In Brazoria County

Solutia Inc. is a "small business" in the overall scheme of things in the petrochemical universe, but the organic chemical production plant outside of Alvin managed to outdo the big boys on Wednesday when it racked up the biggest pollution fine of the week in our great state.For its achievement, So ... More >>

Valero Gets Fined For A Damn Impressive Bit Of Polluting

If you've ever pondered how much pollution an oil refinery can spew out in 4,008 hours and 50 minutes when the gasoline-making process goes wrong, Valero Refining in Texas City has provided an answer: -- 345,624 pounds of sulfur dioxide-- 3,752.30 pounds of hydrogen sulfide-- 63.30 pounds of o ... More >>

Oldies, And Not Goodies, On The Pollution Front

The wheels of environmental justice move ever so slowly. To call it a snail's pace would be an insult to mollusks everywhere. But it is what is, as we say in the parlance of our times, so now we have the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assessing penalties against two local polluters for ... More >>

Dow Chemical Forgets To Leave The Light On

Ever have trouble keeping your hot water heater pilot light on? It's annoying, yes, but the worst repercussion is a surprise cold shower.Pilot light problems occur in the petrochemical world, too, but the repercussions are decidedly more consequential.In the case of a Dow Chemical Co. plant in Texa ... More >>

Shell Oil Finally Gets Fined For What It Puts Into Deer Park's Air

It took awhile, but state environmental regulators and Shell Oil finally came to meeting of the minds about a slew of pollution violations committed at the Deer Park refinery. Upshot: Shell will pay a $345,744 penalty for 35 emissions events and record-keeping violations that occurred from 2004 ... More >>

Formosa Plant Keeps On Polluting

The Pollution Hits Keep Coming

Dow Chemical Leads The Way In Pollution

The Bright Side Of Pollution

Port Arthur Shares The Polluting Load

Tough Times At The Gas Station

ConocoPhillips, Art Car Shenanigans and Concrete Canoes

Panic for ConocoPhillips' stockholders

Toxic Town: Cancer and Birth Defects in Somerville

In Somerville, chances are far better than normal that you will die of cancer or give birth to a deformed baby

Special Report: Toxic Town

Mail Call

Woodwind Lakes Edition

Woodwind Lakes subdivision built on oil and gas field turns on neighbor who pointed out the contamination

A Mighty Wind

A mountain of garbage in northeast Houston is looking to get bigger. Neighbors cry foul.