TexasVox: The Voice of Public Citizen in Texas

Public Citizen testified in the House State Affairs Committee this month about three important government ethics bills pending in the chamber.

All three bills are sponsored by Rep. Sarah Davis, a Houston Republican.

The first of Davis’s bills Public Citizen lent its public support for is HB 1297. This legislation would bar those who have been fired or have resigned from a state agency position due to malfeasance from serving as the executive or on the executive staff of a state agency. Malfeasance is defined in the bill as “intentional misconduct or the knowingly improper performance of any act, duty, or responsibility, including unethical or criminal conduct, financial misconduct, or fraud.”

Public Citizen also testified in support of HB 1876, which reflects the recommendations of the Texas Ethics Commission. This bill would, among other things, address the “revolving door” of legislators-turned-lobbyists by barring a former lawmaker from registering as a lobbyist for one year, beginning with the first regular legislative session to convene. It would also ban political contributions during special legislative sessions.

We also spoke in favor of HB 1877, which would enact eight different ethics-related bills that passed the House in the 85th Session of the Legislature but not the Senate.

Read all three letters from Public Citizen’s Texas office director, Adrian Shelley, to members of the Texas Legislature on these important bills:

• HB 1297
• HB 1876
• HB 1877

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Chemical Fires Far Too Common in the Houston Area

HOUSTON – A chemical fire that erupted early Sunday morning at the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) plant in La Porte, Texas, and is expected to continue to burn through Wednesday shows the dire need for tougher regulation and enforcement, Public Citizen said today. In addition, the disaster underscores the need for more public information from both the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about chemical risks and disaster response efforts.

The fire, which so far involves seven petrochemical storage tanks, sent a thick plume of smoke over the Houston region, forcing local officials to urge residents to shelter in place and cancel classes in both the Deer Park and La Porte Independent School Districts. At least three toxic chemicals involved in the blaze – naphtha, xylene and toluene – pose a danger to public safety. Short-term exposure can cause headaches, dizziness, confusion, breathing irritation, weakness and memory loss – with potentially fatal effects from longer-term exposure.

The ITC fire comes on the heels of a separate, unrelated fire at ExxonMobil’s Baytown refinery on Saturday, which has been contained. A 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation found that chemical incidents occur once every six weeks in the Houston area.

“The ITC chemical fire demonstrates how chemical disasters happen far too often in our region, often due to lax regulatory oversight and enforcement,” said Stephanie Thomas, researcher for Public Citizen’s Texas office. “While this fire rages on for days, the Trump administration is trying to slash the budgets of the EPA and the Chemical Safety Board, and is rolling back the 2017 Risk Management Plan amendments, which sought to bring greater safety to communities like Deer Park that are surrounded by the petrochemical industry. We need more protections for our communities and a serious investment in our health and safety.”

Public Citizen has called for restoring chemical right-to-know standards, so that first responders and residents who live near industrial facilities can fully understand the potential hazards of plants’ chemical inventories. The TCEQ needs additional staff and tools – such as a mobile monitoring unit for full-time use in Houston – to be able to adequately respond to pollution disasters, and needs to be more forthcoming with information about serious health-related incidents, Public Citizen maintains. As of 1 p.m. CDT on Monday, the agency still had not posted any information about the Houston fire on its website or social media accounts.

“Industrial disasters are the natural and inevitable outcome of administration policy to let corporate wrongdoers off the hook, slash regulatory and enforcement budgets, and not update regulations to deal with serious health, safety and environmental risks,” added Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.

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Public Citizen’s Texas office wrote to state lawmakers today urging them to vote in support of HB1.

The letter calls on lawmakers to support funding specifically for the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan, or TERP.

“TERP is the most cost-effective way to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution in Texas,” the letter says. “Reducing NOx pollution improves public health and reduces ozone pollution in our federal ozone non-attainment areas of Houston, DFW, and San Antonio. Despite this, the 2018-19 biennial allocation to TERP was down 22.3 percent from 2016-17 spending levels.[1]

Our letter also aims to address some misconceptions about the Light Duty Purchase or Lease Incentive Program.

“We would…like to correct a misperception about the Light Duty Purchase or Lease Incentive Program (LDPLIP), which provides grants for the purchase of passenger electric vehicles,” we wrote. “This program has been characterized as providing funds for “rich environmentalists to buy electric vehicles.” While we would love to meet some of these rich environmentalists, we aren’t aware of too many of them, and we note that the two most popular vehicles in the LDPLIP program are the Nissan Leaf, with a 2018 MSRP of $29,990 and the Chevy Volt, with a 2018 MSRP of $33,220.[4]”

Read Public Citizen Texas Office Director Adrian Shelley’s complete letter to lawmakers below.

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In the week since we learned from news reports that state and federal regulators inexplicably rejected NASA’s offer to monitor air quality in Houston after Hurricane Harvey, Public Citizen Texas has asked the Texas Legislature to investigate this “willful negligence.”

“Both EPA and TCEQ officials must be held accountable for this inexplicable decision in the face of a grave public health threat,” Adrian Shelley, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office said in a statement.

Public Citizen continues to discuss this with state lawmakers to ensure that they are aware of the issue and responding accordingly. Of course, we weren’t the only ones appalled that the EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s decided to rebuff NASA’s offer to help in those environmentally hazardous days after Harvey.

Harris County (Houston) Judge Lina Hidalgo took to Twitter to voice her dismay.

“This is disturbing,” Hidaldo tweeted about the news. “By rejecting NASA’s plan to measure pollution post-Harvey, EPA & TCEQ missed a critical opportunity. Air quality is vital to the health of Harris County residents. We need more assessments not less of potential environmental hazards.”

The Houston Chronicle Editorial Board published an editorial asking “Why would Texas officials refuse NASA’s help?”

“Harvey knocked down smokestacks, damaged pipelines, broke chemical storage tanks, and flooded hazardous waste sites, causing poisonous runoff to spill into nearby streams,” the newspaper noted. “All hands were needed to assess the 2017 storm’s environmental impact and figure out what immediate steps should be taken to protect the public. Yet when NASA extended its hand, it was refused.”

Congress also wants answers. The U.S. House Science Committee last week wrote letters to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Michael Honeycutt, chief toxicologist at TCEQ, demanding an explanation. The letter called the decision to reject NASA’s help “deeply troubling.”

This story isn’t over. We’re joining others in a call to Reps. Morgan Meyer, a Dallas Republican who chairs the House General Investigating Committee, and J.M. Lozano of Austin, who chairs the House Environmental Regulation Committee, to investigate the matter. Advocates have also requested that Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Granbury Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Economic Development, open an inquiry.

We hope you’ll click the links on their names above for telephone numbers and join us in calling their offices and asking them to hold TCEQ accountable. The public deserves more information about why TCEQ rejected some of the world’s most sophisticated air quality monitoring equipment in the midst of an epic natural disaster.

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Public Citizen Texas today filed testimony in the legislature supporting a bill requiring landlords to notify renters if the dwelling they’re renting is in a flood plain or has been damaged by flooding in the past 20 years.

Home buyers already receive such notice. Renters also deserve to know all of the risks that they are assuming when they rent. The bill has no fiscal implication to the state.

Texans should be informed if their residence is prone to flooding and we urge state lawmakers to support this common sense legislation.

Read Public Citizen’s letter to members of the House Committee on Business and Industry, which has jurisdiction over the bill, below.

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HBPublic Citizen Director Adrian Shelley wrote to members of the House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety today asking them to support HB 91, which would establish a disaster identification system for a declared state of disaster.

You can read the letter below.

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House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety. P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768

February 27, 2019

Re: HB 91, supporting testimony by Public Citizen

Dear Chairman Nevárez and members of the committee:

Public Citizen appreciates the opportunity to testify in favor of HB 91, relating to establishment of the disaster identification system for a declared state of disaster.

We support this bill because it will provide a means for emergency responders to locate victims in need of assistance during a disaster. Public Citizen has advocated for many years on behalf of communities and their needs during disasters.

We participated in two meetings called by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality with public health and environmental advocates to discuss the response to Hurricane Harvey. These meetings, held on September 12, 2017 and December 11, 2017, consisted of wide ranging discussions about Texas’ response to the public health and safety emergencies presented by Harvey. Through these meetings and our advocacy on this issue, we are well acquainted with the emergency response to Harvey, including areas where it could have been improved. In the midst of the Hurricane Harvey response, Texas Emergency

Management Chief Nim Kidd implored Texans in need of assistance “to make sure you put a signal out there, that you are still there, and you still need help, convey that message to first responders.” HB 91 creates a standard system to convey that message: an illuminated display that uses a standard color scheme to communicate to first responders the needs of people and domestic animals.

Because we want first responders to have every available tool to respond to people in need, and because we believe that HB 91 provides one such tool, we support the bill.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony, if you wish to discuss our position further, I can be reached by email at ashelley@citizen.org or by phone at 512-477-1155.

Respectfully,

Adrian Shelley, Texas Office Director, Public Citizen

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Do you follow the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on Twitter? How about Facebook? Did you know they have an Instagram page? LinkedIn? YouTube?

The TCEQ has about 18,000 followers across those platforms, with 10,000 of those on LinkedIn and 6,000 on Twitter. They also maintain the website and social media for “Take Care of Texas,” the less-successful younger brother of TxDOT’s “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign.

Last week, at the first meeting of the House Environmental Regulations Committee during the 86th legislature, TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker told committee members that he hoped the TCEQ could use social media more effectively in the future. We agreed at the time, and now we’d like to take this opportunity to identify three things the TCEQ does well on social media and three things it could do better.

1. Air Quality Forecasts

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality uses its Twitter page to post daily air quality forecasts. The air quality forecasts might look familiar to you if you know of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index and AirNow.gov website. Many people use these tools to get information about air quality and air pollution near them, including people who suffer from asthma and people who work outdoors. When elevated ozone levels are the difference between a safe run or an asthma attack, you can imagine why some people rely on these resources. The TCEQ provides an email option for air quality forecasts, but posting them on social media is a great way to build the audience.

TCEQ began posting air quality forecasts back to 2015, when they were still using the @TCEQNews twitter handle. This happened in response to criticism from Air Alliance Houston (where I worked at the time), which had been calling attention to TCEQ’s total lack of an online presence. TCEQ never directly acknowledged our criticism, but to their credit, they did start posting daily air quality forecasts. In my research for this post, I found an archived Air Alliance Houston blog post from 2015 in which I (immodestly) took credit for prompting TCEQ to action.

2. Drought Maps

Some time after the TCEQ started posting daily air quality forecasts on Twitter, they added regularly updated drought maps. This is another example of actionable content about environmental quality. People across Texas can use the drought maps to adjust their water use or decide which of Texas’ many lakes, rivers, and streams to visit. Seeing periodic drought maps is also a good reminder that Texas often faces water shortages. We hope that this fact will prompt people to speak up about the need to use water more wisely in Texas by, for example, limiting the use of water in hydraulic fracturing or investing in urban water infrastructure to minimize transmission losses.

3. Notice of Public Hearings

This is another example where public criticism caused TCEQ to respond and change its practices for the better. Perhaps three years ago, the old @TCEQNews Twitter account posted to announce the close of a public comment period with no comments received. I responded (again from the Air Alliance Houston Twitter account) that receiving zero public comments was nothing to celebrate, and that perhaps TCEQ should post notice of public opportunities when they begin, not when they end without participation. Again I didn’t get a direct acknowledgement of my criticism, but again TCEQ responded, this time by beginning to post notice of public hearings. The public hearing is an essential opportunity for members of the public to weigh on permits and other decisions that affect our environment, so TCEQ should do everything it can to encourage public involvement.

Pointing out these past exchanges with TCEQ isn’t about any desire for credit, but rather to show that the TCEQ does sometimes respond to publicly raised concerns. These may be a few modest changes by the agency, but they are typical of what we see from TCEQ. There are many, many hardworking, conscientious staffers at the Commission. Much of the good work that TCEQ does happens among these staffers, quietly and by degrees. These are the people who are listening when we make recommendations to the TCEQ. They may not announce changes with fanfare, but they can often nudge the Commission in the right direction. With that in mind, here are three things the TCEQ could do better on social media.

1. Focus on the Public

Do you know who TCEQ’s customers are? You might think it’s the 28 million Texans who breathe air, drink water, and enjoy unspoiled natural land. In fact, in TCEQ parlance, a “customer” is a company that has a permit with the Commission. What we might call a “polluter.”

This focus of attention on polluters is evident in TCEQ’s messaging on their website, social media, and elsewhere. So, for example, you will find social media announcements for the Environmental Trade Fair and Conference, but you aren’t likely to see any announcements for a workshop about, say, filing an environmental complaint. (As an aside, if you want to know how un-user friendly TCEQ’s complaint process is, consider that the actual email address they use is CMPLAINT@tceq.texas.gov.)

2. Post permit notices and information Online

The TCEQ could promote public engagement by making more information available online. There is actually a bill filed in this legislative session by Rep. Jessica Farrar of Houston, HB 245, that would require TCEQ to post certain environmental and water use permit applications online.

The TCEQ could do this by choice if it wanted to. If online posting required more resources, the TCEQ could request those resources in its budget proposal to the legislature. Furthermore, posting permits online would free TCEQ resources in the filing rooms across the state, where records are required to be kept for public viewing. Online posting wouldn’t eliminate the need for public maintenance of records, but it would drastically reduce the number of members of the public who came to view records, thus relieving an administrative burden on TCEQ. Details aside, there is little question that moving toward storing information online will save resources in the long run. TCEQ has, to its credit, done a lot of work in recent years to combine and update its online databases. Posting permits online is a next logical step.

3. Engage!

To recap, much of the story I have told here is one of advocates such as myself calling out TCEQ, and TCEQ quietly responding. At times the Commission seems singleminded about not engaging with the people. Perhaps they are concerned about creating liability or upsetting their customers. Whatever the reason, probably the biggest flaw in TCEQ’s social media strategy is the unwillingness to engage people where they are. To enter into frank exchanges about the hazards Texans face and what they can do about them. Nowhere is this more evident than during a natural disaster or an accident such as a fire or chemical release. These incidents often lead to robust discussions on social media, including people looking for information about risks and how to avoid them. In these up-to-the-minute conversations, the TCEQ is nowhere to be found. I suspect we could get an answer from some lawyers about why TCEQ cannot weigh in on a disaster as it is unfolding, but from our perspective that answer will simply be a justification to continue to not engage a willing public.

If the Commission is serious about improving its social media presence, our last suggestion is to loosen up, engage with people, and pull back the veil a bit. If people see the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality willing to engage with them, then perhaps they will be more willing to make that complaint, attend that workshop, or file those public comments. We have to believe that this is what TCEQ actually wants from average Texans, and social media is one way to encourage it.

Honorable Mention: TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker

In conclusion, we have to applaud TCEQ’s Executive Director Toby Baker for having his own twitter account, @ctobybaker, since 2012. Mr. Baker has shared some fun tweets over the years, though at some point there was an addition to his twitter profile that is quite revelatory about the TCEQ’s current approach to social media. It reads, “Due to TX laws, I can’t receive certain communications– all ‘mentions’ are screened”

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Climate change is the defining issue of our time. Public Citizen believes that journalists and media outlets should give climate change the media coverage it deserves. Seven in ten Americans agree that they are interested in climate change and that the media should cover it more. Our “Cover Climate” campaign was launched to call attention to media outlets that are not adequately covering climate change.

A new report by Public Citizen’s Cover Climate campaign shows that media outlets typically do not discuss climate change when covering extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts, and hurricanes. The report, Carbon Omission: How the U.S. Media Failed to Connect Extreme Weather to Climate Change in 2018, shows that media outlets only mention climate change in conjunction with heat waves 34 per cent of the time, for droughts only 34 per cent of the time, and for last years hurricanes Florence and Michael, only 10 per cent of the time.

Interestingly, papers in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas–all states affected by hurricanes in 2017 or 2018–are actually worse than their peers in other states at mentioning climate change in conjunction with natural disasters.

This is especially concerning in Texas, which is more vulnerable to natural disasters than any other state. In fact, based on an analysis by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Texas has experienced 44% of all billion dollar disasters in the United States since 1980.

The United States has experienced 238 billion dollar disasters since 1980, with 105 of those occurring in Texas. Meaning our state is second to none in its vulnerability to natural disasters and should be very concerned about the relationship between these disasters and climate change.

Despite this, Texas Governor Greg Abbott remains defiant on the question of climate science. Earlier this month, Governor Abbott was presented with a letter from climate scientists explaining that there is a scientific consensus on climate change and that we can expect to see increasing consequences for our failure to act.

Abbott’s response? He can’t weigh in on the question of climate change because he is not a scientist.

This is not an adequate response. Nevertheless, it is a favored talking point by climate deniers. The argument that one must be an expert to make policy decisions is simply absurd. One can imagine the reaction if Governor Abbott, after a briefing by Texas teachers, asserted that he couldn’t make decisions about school finance because he isn’t a teacher. Or how about a Governor Abbott who wouldn’t weigh on the the abortion question because he isn’t a doctor?

In these areas, our Governor believes he is qualified to make policy pronouncements–as indeed any capable leader would. We rely on our elected officials not to be experts in each and every field, but to have the wherewithal to consult the experts and make policy decisions based on their recommendations.

This is all we ask of Governor Greg Abbott. No one expects him to become a climate scientist. His protestations that he cannot weigh in on the issue without personally possessing the expertise are a dodge, nothing more. If he refuses to answer important policy questions for the state, it is only because he knows he is out of step with mainstream science and public opinion on the issue.

This is why climate coverage by our state’s news media is so important. We cannot let our lawmakers dodge the issue any more. They need to know that when we discuss droughts, flood, heat waves, hurricanes, and yes, even polar vortexes, we will also be having a conversation about climate change. If the media continues the conversation, our policymakers will fall in line.

We aren’t asking them to be experts. We’re just asking them to listen to the experts.

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By Rita Beving

On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council approved the selection of AECOM, an international, Fortune 500 consulting firm, to help develop a climate and environmental plan for Dallas and the surrounding community.

AECOM has given assistance in climate and sustainability planning to other cities including Mexico City and Los Angeles.

The vote marks the beginning of the climate planning process for Dallas to reduce its carbon footprint.  The planning process offers many different avenues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including electrifying transportation, investing in green energy, retiring fossil fuel generation, securing commitments from industrial emitters and promoting energy efficiency.

The planning process will immediately commence in the upcoming weeks with an eye on a final plan to be reviewed in the spring of 2020.

It will involve a public process with stakeholders from business, industry, academia, the environment and the community.

Along with the selection of the consulting entity that will help develop the climate plan, the City of Dallas passed a multi-faceted resolution directing the City Manager to take the necessary actions to join the network of C40 cities.  The C40 is an association of the world’s largest cities committed to addressing climate change, connecting 96 of the world’s greatest cities to take climate action.

Additionally, the resolution also directed Dallas to support federal action on climate, supporting a proposal by Citizens Climate Lobby for congressional approval of a national carbon fee and dividend.  The carbon fee and dividend concept is part of the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act introduced in Congress in 2018.  The act provides for a national, revenue-neutral carbon fee-and-dividend system (CF&D) which would place a predictable, steadily rising price on carbon, with all fees collected minus administrative costs returned to households as a monthly energy dividend.

Dallas took the necessary steps this past Wednesday to chart a course toward rapid and decisive action at both a federal and local level to combat climate change.  And I applaud their broad and aggressive action. It is time that other cities in the DFW area also take the challenge to step up for their citizens and the region by pursuing their own climate plans and other initiatives to help clean the air and cool the planet.

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Earlier this month, Governor Gregg Abbott released a new report on Hurricane Harvey. “Eye of the Storm,” The Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas (Nov. 2018) (available at https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/RebuildTexasHurricaneHarveyEyeOfTheStorm_12132018.pdf).

Harvey’s magnitude was unprecedented in Texas. Sixty eight people lost their lives; 780,000 were evacuated; and 122,000 were rescued by first responders. All told, the storm was estimated to cost Texas $125 billion. The Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas was created to develop a path forward for recovery from the storm and preparedness for the next one. Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp chaired the commission. The report that resulted is a comprehensive look at Hurricane Harvey and Texas’ needs. In many areas we agree with the commission, and we encourage everyone to look at the report and judge for themselves. There are some areas where we disagree or would have recommended stronger action. Below we have commented on a few specific subjects covered in the report.

Climate Change must be identified as a contributing factor to Harvey and future storms.

Much attention was paid to how the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas—and Governor Abbott himself—did or did not mention climate change in the report. Neither the Governor’s press release announcing the report or the 178 page report itself says the words “climate change.” This is a disservice to Texas, as it’s hard to prepare for something that you refuse to call by name.

We have improved since 2011, when Texas censored a report about climate change and sea level rise in Galveston Bay. This report includes some oblique references to climate change. The Rebuild Texas Commission states that, “The clearest and most important message we took from the commission’s work is that Hurricane Harvey was a warning we should heed.” (Eye of the Storm at p. iv.) The report also acknowledges that, “The current scientific consensus points to increasing amounts of intense rainfall coupled with the likelihood of more intense hurricanes.” (Id. at 42.)

This language is tacit acceptance of the existence of climate change, but it simply isn’t enough. According to the 2018 Climate Opinion Maps from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 56% of Texans believe that our governor should do more to address global warming. (See http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us-2018/?est=governor&type=value&geo=state&id=48.) He can start by saying “global warming” or “climate change” in public and by publishing the words in official state reports.

But this isn’t enough. A plan to actually prepare Texas for climate change will account for the new reality of hotter temperatures, longer droughts, more frequent and intense rain events and hurricanes, sea level rise, and changing flood patterns. Texas will never develop such a plan if its Governor will not hold honest, open conversations about the issue. (There are, however, legislative proposals that would move Texas in the right direction.)

Notification of community members should be improved.

The report notes that, “Effective communication among responder groups and citizens during a crisis greatly increases the success of response.” (Eye of the Storm at 62). One interesting development during the rescue operations was the impromptu use of social media to alert first responders of where rescues were needed. The commission recommendations focus on “interoperability” of communications systems—that is, the ability of different agencies and first responder groups to communicate with one another on channels such as radio.

We think that new channels are also needed to communicate with the public. For several years now Public Citizen has called for Texas to develop a more modern system of emergency notifications for chemical emergencies. In the 85^th legislative session we supported HB 1927 to do just that. Hurricane Harvey also showed that more modern emergency notification systems are needed. Cell phones allow “push notifications” that can be highly geotargeted and are sent unless users opt out. We believe that such a modern notification system should be developed and accessible for use by agencies and local governments statewide. Such a system could be used for chemical emergencies, floods, wildfires, and other natural and manmade disasters.

Better planning is needed for Temporary Debris Management Sites.

Harvey generated 13 million cubic yards of debris (or, in Texas units, 16 Kyle Fields worth of debris). (Eye of the Storm at 72.) Managing that debris required the approval

Screenshot of the TCEQ’s TDMS map with contact info.

of 228 temporary debris management sites (TDMSs). (Id. at 73.) In conversations with TCEQ staff, we were told that TDMSs go through a pre-approval process that includes an opportunity for public notice and comment. Neither Public Citizen nor its allies were aware of this pre-approval process before Hurricane Harvey. Many communities across the region were alarmed to find that debris management sites popped up overnight in their communities.

We suspect that the pre-approval process for these sites was lacking, and we encourage TCEQ to engage in a more inclusive effort to notify the public when approving future TDMSs. To its credit, the TCEQ did create a comprehensive map of all TDMSs that includes location and a contact phone number. That map is available at https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1hfhU9C6qfnGnGWuT5x6JgAHyz8s&ll=29.15144754529617%2C-97.10440749999998&z=7.

Rule suspensions must stop.

For eight months after Hurricane Harvey, Governor Abbot left in place the suspension of forty-six environmental rules spanning air, water, and waste regulation. Public Citizen and its allies objected to the prolonged suspension and successfully lobbied for their removal in April 2018. (You can see our comments on the rule suspension here and a rule-by-rule analysis here.)

We object to any rule suspensions during disasters. It may be that extenuating circumstances during a disaster make it difficult or impossible to comply with one or more environmental rules. If that it is the case, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has enforcement discretion it can exercise to forgive entities that could not comply with rules. But blanket suspensions of rules send the wrong message about accountability during a disaster and potentially create a legal defense to any liability for actions during or after a disaster. For these reasons, Public Citizen will as a matter of policy oppose all future rule suspensions during disasters.

The Rebuild Texas Commission recommended that the Governor’s office, “Compile and maintain a comprehensive list of all the regulatory waivers needed during a disaster to expedite suspensions in any future event.” (Eye of the Storm at 99.) For the reasons stated above, we believe that no waivers are needed.

Air pollution and petrochemical industry vulnerability must be addressed.

The Commission to Rebuild Harvey included virtually no discussion of air pollution in its report. The report does acknowledge a “particularly severe” impact on “water systems and the chemical, oil and transportation industries.” (Eye of the Storm at 122.) Some of the impacts catalogued include:

• 77 boil water notices.
• 19 water systems and 31 wastewater systems offline.
• 16 hospital closures.
• 15 dams affected.
• 336,000 electricity customers lost power.
• Three highways inundated (I-10, I-45, and US-59).
• 500 roads closed.
• 13 bridges requiring repairs.

Absent from this list is the millions of pounds of air pollution that was released; anywhere between 1.7 million and 8.3 million pounds depending on who’s counting.

Interestingly, the report states that two very large incidents, including the Arkema chemical plant disaster—possibly one of the most widely reported on disasters resulting from Harvey—were “never publicized.” (Eye of the Storm at 23.) It is true that there was a critical lack of information about the Arkema situation as it was unfolding—a situation that led to at least 15 first responders seeking medical care or hospitalization due to exposure to the disaster. But after the fact the Arkema disaster was the subject of much analysis culminating in the release of a report by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

The report also pointed out a lack of coverage of the Magellan Midstream Partners tank farm accident in Galena Park. That accident was initially reported to have released more than 2.5 million pounds of air pollution, though that amount was eventually revised down to a little more than 56,000 pounds. Interestingly, the Environmental Integrity Project released a report showing that companies who revised their pollution estimates almost always decreased them, and often dramatically (see p. 21 of the report).

We agree with the Commission to Rebuild Texas that air pollution events were underreported in the hours and days after they began. But there has been extensive coverage of that fact in the months since the storm. By failing to detail the specific incidents and their causes, the Commission to Rebuild Texas has omitted a significant vulnerability: the petrochemical industry. The report does not identify specific weaknesses such as floating roof tanks and includes no proposals to harden the petrochemical industry.

For our part, Public Citizen believes that responsibility for preparing that industry for the next storm should not be borne by taxpayers. Indeed, the members of the petrochemical industry are in part responsible for Hurricane Harvey due to their contribution of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. If anything, industry should be contributing to the state’s cleanup effort. Texas and Texas taxpayers should not have to bear any cost at all of industry recovery or resiliency planning.

Harvey recovery should be funded by the Economic Stabilization Fund.

It’s called the “Rainy Day Fund” for a reason. Right now the Economic Stabilization Fund has a balance of about $12.5 billion. Governor Abbott declined to call an emergency session to provide Houston with rainy day funds before the 86^th session. Now it will be up to the legislature whether to develop an aid package for coastal communities impacted by Harvey. Certainly there is a need for funding from all available sources to continue to the path to recovery and resilience. The Commission to Rebuild Texas did not make a recommendation regarding use of rainy day funds. We recommend the use of rainy day funds and believe they are absolutely necessary to achieve the goal set by the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas: not simply to replace what was destroyed by Harvey, but to increase Texas’ resilience before the next storm.

The people of Texas, our first responders, and our government officials deserve credit for their response to Hurricane Harvey. We worked together to minimize the damage from one of the worst natural disasters in state history. Public Citizen commends those who helped out during and after the storm. We commend Governor Abbott for commissioning this report as well. There is work to be done to rebuild and prepare, and the state should follow through with the recommendations in this report.

But there are some areas where the state should go further. Our leaders must be willing to call out climate change for the existential threat that it is. And we must allocate emergency funding when emergencies leave lasting unaddressed need. Texas will not soon forget the lessons from Harvey, nor will the recovery be completed any time soon. This report is a good step forward, but much is left to be done.

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