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ENVIRONMENT
Drought, wildfires, rolling blackouts, pollution and wa-ter shortages are only a few of the environmental chal-lenges that Texas is facing and will continue to face over the next several years. David Weinberg, Executive Direc-tor of the Texas League of Conservation Voters, gives an overview of some of the key issues that policymakers will grapple with this year and beyond.
TEXAS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: KEY ISSUES DRIVING
PUBLIC POLICY IN 2012
— David Weinberg, Executive Director, Texas League of Conservation Voters
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012 will be a rocky road for environmental policy in Texas, with thestate facing critical environmental challenges involving contentious issues related to water, electric reliability, and jobs. These issues will drive public policy debate in 2012 and into the 2013 state legislative session. Looking back at 2011, state lawmakers seemed to recognize the need for greater environmental regulation, highlighted by the passage of a man-datory disclosure law for hydraulic fracturing fluids, as well as market reforms that will enable more use of energy efficiency and renewable en-ergy. Positive legislation also passed the Texas Legislature in the areas of water conservation and recycling. Fewer regulatory rollbacks gained traction than expected.
However, state legislative gains were largely offset by a state budget that delivered some of the most perilous cuts to conservation and the environ-ment in the history of our state. To highlight one egregious shortcoming, the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife announced at the end of 2011 that they were making an appeal to the public to help close a $4.6 million dollar hole in the state parks system’s budget. Successful clean-air programs also suffered.
Water, Drought & Wildfires
2011 was the kind of record year that we hope never to see again. Drought and wildfires have taken a multi-billion dollar toll in direct and indirect costs to Texans, our communities and businesses, as well as to the environment. Climatologists and meteorologists expect the drought to last through at least the summer of 2012, and perhaps far longer. The drought, in turn, has been the perfect storm for a wildfire season that also broke record books by scorching more than 3.9 million acres in the past year. As disastrous as the drought was during 2011, a continuation of these conditions, along with the consistent failure of state leaders to address underlying issues, places us at grave risk.
46 Putting texas First As disastrous as the drought was during 2011,
a continuation of these conditions, along with the consistent failure of state leaders to address
underlying issues, places us at grave risk.
How the state deals with these immediate impacts and long-term chal-lenges of the drought, including dwindling water supplies and agricultur-al losses, is on a priority list of interim charges — items for the legislature to study between sessions — set out by Lt. Governor David Dewhurst64
and House Speaker Joe Straus.65 A wide range of charges touch on the
drought and wildfire prevention aimed at mitigating the skyrocketing costs of these two natural disasters on our state. It appears that everything from funding for volunteer firefighters to desalination as a solution to our water shortage woes is on the table for further review and consideration.
Green Jobs and Electric Reliability
2012 will be a critical year for power generation in Texas, with a variety of factors combining to create a real capacity crunch and a need for new ideas. New U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public-health regulations regarding mercury, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide, as well as market conditions lowering the price and production cost of alternative energy sources like wind and natural gas, may lead to the retirement of some of Texas’ older, dirtier coal fired plants. The drought also may affect the ability of these and other water-hungry fossil-fuel plants to operate. These factors, along with laws passed in the last state legislative session may help state leaders forge a path toward a meaningful expansion of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs in Texas. In particular, the Public Utility Commission (PUC), through rulemaking and policy changes, should encourage the expansion of energy efficiency programs, as well as availability of renewable energy on the Texas grid. An emphasis on energy efficiency will reduce demands on the grid and save consumers money, all while creating good-paying green jobs. The state’s construc-tion of new power lines to West Texas is helping improve transmission
capacity and should expand the potential for large-scale wind and solar projects in the state.
An emphasis on energy efficiency will reduce demands on the grid and save consumers money, all while
creating good-paying green jobs.
Self-regulated power providers, including municipal and rural coopera-tives, will also play a major role in Texas’ green energy future: San Anto-nio’s CPS Energy and Austin’s Austin Energy made public commitments to contract for hundreds of new megawatts of wind and solar generating capacity. These are the sorts of positive steps forward that can place Texas on a path toward widespread adoption of renewable energy and create new jobs in the green energy sector.
Hydraulic Fracturing
Hydraulic fracturing, the controversial practice of using pressure to ex-tract oil and gas from deep shale formations, remains one of the most debated environmental issues both in Texas and nationwide. The Texas Legislature made headlines in 2011 when Texas became the first state to pass a mandatory hydraulic fracturing fluid disclosure law. The Texas Railroad Commission moved quickly on adopting a rule for the new law, which became final in December of 2011. The Texas Legislature also au-thorized increased air monitoring in the heavily-populated Barnett Shale region in and around Fort Worth, and the Texas Commission of Environ-mental Quality is set to start air monitoring in the gas and oil rich Eagle Ford region of south Texas in early 2012.
Nationally, the EPA is continuing a comprehensive study on hydraulic fracturing. The EPA will release initial study results in a 2012 report and an additional report at the end of 2014. In the U.S. Congress, the FRAC Act was reintroduced in 2011. This bill would have ended the exemption from the Clean Water Act for oil and gas drilling passed in a 2005 energy
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bill. The bill did not pass, but legislation on hydraulic fracturing is likely to be seen again in Congress in 2012.
Environmental Protection Agency Rulemaking
Federal EPA rules and regulations guide and shape much of our state’s environmental policy. Politics continues to drive the public debate on many EPA rules, with science and the health of Texans (in particular pregnant women, infants, and the elderly) often taking a backseat. Unfor-tunately this is bad news for Texans: beyond the health impacts, turning the regulatory process into a political football creates an environment in which companies are unwilling to invest new capital.
Following is a review of some of the most impactful federal environmen-tal rulemaking affecting Texans:
Cross-State Air Pollution Rule
The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) would impose caps on sul-fur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that drift across state borders. It applies to Texas and 26 eastern states, regulating pollution from sulfur dioxide, which leads to acid rain, and nitrogen oxide, a component of ground-level ozone, which is a leading contributor to smog and global warming; both emissions are known public health hazards.
Texas consumes more electricity and uses more coal than any other state, which, according to the EPA, accounts for 98 percent of sulfur dioxide
and 92 percent of nitrogen oxide released into the air by power plants.
Texas consumes more electricity and uses more coal than any other state, which, according to the EPA, accounts for 98 percent of sulfur dioxide and 92 percent of nitrogen oxide released into the air by power plants. The fight over CSAPR implementation and its long-term impact on Tex-as and surrounding states, however, is far from decided. A TexTex-as lawsuit
against the EPA was filed September 20, 2011, and on December 30, 2011, the court stayed the EPA rule.
Maximum Available Control Technology (Mercury/Power Plants)
In March 2011, the EPA released standards aimed at limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from industrial boilers, most nota-bly found at power plants, chemical plants, refineries and paper mills. By controlling these plants’ pollution through a MACT (Maximum Avail-able Control Technology) rule, EPA’s air toxics safeguard will protect Americans from breathing arsenic, lead, acid gases and mercury. Even in small amounts, MACT pollutants can be life threatening and are linked to cancer, birth defects and brain damage.
Even in small amounts, MACT pollutants can be life threatening and are linked to cancer, birth defects
and brain damage.
The positive health benefits, reduction in health care costs and job cre-ation driven by a switch to cleaner technologies and energy sources would certainly offset the compliance costs of the rule. Yet, the rule’s opponents argue that it would put one-fifth of the nation’s coal-fired electric genera-tional capacity into retirement. As more of these facilities are converted to natural gas, as renewable energy gains broader adoption, and as coal facilities are shuttered for other reasons, the opposition’s argument ap-pears far less salient.66
Ozone Rule
The ozone rule proposed by the EPA, which is also stalled, would help Texas meet and maintain national standards for ground level ozone and fine particle pollution (smog) which affects the health of thousands of Americans. The ozone rule would tighten requirements for pollution from a broad range of sources, including vehicles. This proposal has been
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delayed by heated industry lobbying that pushed the Obama administra-tion to postpone a review of the rule until 2013.
The ozone rule is especially important to air quality in Texas due to the fact that more than 20 counties in Texas, including the cities of Houston, Dallas, and
Fort Worth, have ozone levels that health scientists have determined threaten human well-being, and were
designated for non-attainment for EPA’s health based standards for ozone pollution.
The ozone rule is especially important to air quality in Texas due to the fact that more than 20 counties in Texas, including the cities of Hous-ton, Dallas, and Fort Worth, have ozone levels that health scientists have determined threaten human well-being, and were designated for non-attainment for EPA’s health based standards for ozone pollution. While the Clean Air Act standard in existence today is helping to keep the air healthier for Texans and bring many counties into attainment, improved standards would accelerate and expand the number of counties coming into attainment while also reducing ground level particle pollution, too.
Keystone XL Pipeline
A robust debate continues from 2011 on whether the United States should allow the construction of an oil pipeline to bring Canadian tar sands to U.S. refineries. The proposed pipeline would traverse sensitive lands, waterways and public spaces across Canada and the U.S., including the Ogallala Aquifer here in Texas all the way up to the Dakotas.
Every major U.S. environmental organization opposes this proposed $7 billion project, because squeezing oil out of tar sand is a wasteful and dirty process. To get a single barrel of oil from tar sand, you must process between two to four tons of tar sand with two to four barrels of water. The massive pits required to develop tar sand destroys forests and wildlife and leaves a massive blight on the landscape, especially in the boreal forest
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ENVIRONMENT FACTS AND FIGURES
DETAILS
■ The Bastrop Fire that burned in summer 2011 was the most destructive fire in Texas history, destroying over 1,500 homes.73
■ According to Texas A&M University, the drought caused a record $5.2 billion in agricultural losses alone.74
■ In 2011, Texas suffered through the second hottest summer in the history of the United States — an average of 86.7°F from June through August.75
■ In 2011, Texas experienced the worst single-year drought in the history of the state.76
HOW TEXAS RANKS Fossil fuel emissions in 2009: 1st… at 630,500,000 tons of CO267
Total pollution released in 2009: 2nd… at 189,779,393 pounds of toxins68
Percent of electricity generated through renewable sources in 2008:
28th… at 4.6%69
Average monthly electric bill for residential customers in 2009:
4th… at $14170
Average monthly electric bill for commercial customers in 2009:
14th… at $66571
Per capita energy expenditures in 2008: 5th… at $6,80372
■ A relatively unseen impact of the drought, groundwater levels in much of Texas have fallen to the lowest levels in more than 60 years.77
