TCEQ: Agency of Destruction, and no friend to the public

Commissioners and top management frequently leave the agency to work for the industries they previously regulated, a revolving door that critics say has led to TCEQ’s leaning in industry’s direction

Evidence in hand, DISH Mayor Calvin Tillman, a conservative who’s become the bane of North Texas gas interests, called on the industry to clean up its act or get out of town

Note: We can't say enough about the excellent and well documented investigative reporting of Forrest Wilder, a Wimberley native. If reading this story makes your blood boil, it should. Texas is our home, not a sanctuary for polluters as apparently TCEQ and its industry backers see things. We can't help but ask who will stand up and fix this toxic mess of an agency, and we understand the reality that our elected Legislature certainly will not. Our Legislators are like cattle, perennially bought and sold at auction by industry lobbyists – they know who wears the pants. It's the way bidness is conducted in Texas. Forget about Patrick Rose and Jeff Wentworth making a lick of difference. The fixin' will have to start with 'the people,' the most novel of America's founding and democratic concepts. Here's hoping we haven't forgotten.

Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. Wilder at
wilder@texasobserver.org, go to this link http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/about/directory/comm_directory.html#chair for TCEQ contact info, or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story

Please take the time to read the whole story at this link: http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/agency-of-destruction

Three hours after a fire broke out at Citgo’s Corpus Christi
refinery on July 19, 2009, releasing dangerous chemicals, the
TCEQ’s regional head emailed a colleague: “Apparently there
is a fire at Citgo. I’m walking into the Harry Potter movie.”

TEXAS OBSERVER

By FORREST WILDER
Published on: Wednesday May 26, 2010

To judge by size along, Texas' environmental agency should be the mortal terror of polluters. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) boasts a $600 million budget, some 3,000 employees, a sprawling Austin headquarters, and 16 regional offices. In 2008, the agency conducted more than 100,000 investigations, issued more than 14,000 violation notices, and levied $16.9 million in penalties. By the numbers, Texas’ environmental agency is the second-largest in the world, after the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Though it’s not a household name, the commission has profound influence – over the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the health of Texas’ diverse ecosystems, not to mention the state’s economy. The agency regulates dry cleaners, hazardous waste dumps, the vast coastal petrochemical complexes and uranium mines. It oversees Texas’ enforcement of federal laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

But both its critics and friends will agree on this: TCEQ is no EPA. While the federal agency is a favorite punching bag of right-wing Texas politicians like Gov. Rick Perry, you don’t hear warnings ringing out about the evils of the TCEQ. That’s because, in decision after decision, the Texas agency that’s supposed to protect the public and the environment has sided with polluters.

Perry, who appoints the three TCEQ commissioners, and the TCEQ bosses say they’ve strived to balance economic growth with protecting the environment. It doesn’t feel that way to the agency’s fierce and numerous critics.

“The problem with some of my colleagues’ balancing is they always balance it toward economic development and don’t let the environment have an equal consideration,” says Larry Soward, a former TCEQ commissioner who now works with environmental groups on strategies to improve the agency.

Texas has always been a state where environmental concerns are elbowed aside by moneyed interests: the cattle baron, the oilman, the multinational petrochemical company with billions in assets. Under governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry, the TCEQ has become increasingly cozy with industry. (Until 2002, the agency was the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, or TNRCC—”Trainwreck” to its critics.)

“It’s never been worse,” says Jim Schermbeck of the clean-air group Downwinders at Risk. “Perry makes Bush look like a Greenpeace smokestack-sitter.”

When Texas citizens meet their environmental agency, they’re often disappointed. The stories of environmental battles – told in these pages countless times – frequently follow a similar plot.

First, citizens band together to beat back (fill in the blank: a coal plant, industrial feedlot, uranium mine, or something else of your choosing). New to activism, they educate themselves on the rules, laws and politics. At some point, they probably contact an overwhelmed organization such as Public Citizen or the Sierra Club for help. They form a group with a snappy acronym, print literature, create a website, hold meetings and write their Congress member. After a time, they realize that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is holding the cards. A permit must be stopped or penalties assessed to deter misbehavior. Surely the commission, an impartial arbiter, will weigh the facts and side with the people.

More times than not, a bitter reality sets in: The TCEQ is not the people’s friend, but another obstacle. There’s a “well-founded perception that [the public] can’t get in the process or, even if they get in, it’s just a token effort, and it won’t make any difference,” Soward says.

In TCEQ’s internal lingo, “customers” are the companies the agency regulates. In serving its “customers,” TCEQ has allowed itself to be overrun by powerful interests, shown disregard for both science and the law, and cast aside public opinion.

[ Updated below The TCEQ-EPA showdown has escalated. In an unprecedented move, EPA announced yesterday that it is blocking the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from issuing a permit to a refinery in Corpus Christi and is threatening to do the same for dozens of other refineries and chemical plants. It’s clear now – if it wasn’t before – that the feds mean business. “I think the writing will be on the wall — unless we start seeing better permits that address our objections, we are very likely to begin federalizing others,” EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz told the Houston Chronicle. “The… Read more... ]

Forrest Wilder, a native of Wimberley, Texas, joined the Observer as a staff writer in April 2005. Forrest specializes in environmental reporting and runs the “Forrest for the Trees” blog. Forrest graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in December 2003 with a degree in Anthropology.