Clean Air Advocates Call on Texas to Attack Washington's Feeble Pollution Rules

Will Texas' Attorney General Adhere to His Campaign Promise for Cleaner Air?

Posted: 09-Jan-2003; Updated: 25-Sep-2003

Environmental Defense's and Public Citizen's Texas offices have urged Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to join nine other states' attorneys general in their lawsuit against the Bush Administration for its revisions to the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) Program. The two organizations made their request in a letter sent to the Attorney General this week.

"Attorney General Abbott's campaign ads said he would fight for Texans, but he has been silent on this critical issue since taking office. He committed in writing that he opposed the Bush Administration's proposed changes to the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act, but has failed to act on his campaign promises," said Jim Marston, Environmental Defense's regional director in Texas.

In response to a questionnaire from Public Citizen during his 2002 campaign, Abbott stated opposition to proposed changes for New Source Review. (A copy of the questionnaire can be viewed here.)

Announced in November 2002 and made official on New Year's Eve, the Bush Administration's NSR rollback broadly exempts power plants and industrial facilities nationwide from long-standing federal air pollution controls. Health protections under the NSR program have historically required power plants, refineries, steel mills, chemical plants, and other large industrial sources that lack modern pollution control systems to update their pollution reduction technology when they take action that significantly increases air pollution.

"New Source Review has proven an effective tool in Texas, most recently bringing Alcoa to the table to reduce its pollution, and Gregg Abbott can show some real leadership by joining this suit," said Tom (Smitty) Smith, director of Public Citizen Texas. "Inaction will break his campaign promise and show the Attorney General chooses polluters over Texans' health."

Links
  Letter to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott from Texas Public Citizen and Environmental Defense, requesting Texas join a lawsuit brought by nine other states protesting a rollback of air pollution rules in the Clean Air Act.
  Press Release: Texas Attorney General Urged to Join Clean Air Lawsuit (1/9/03)
  Fact Sheet: Nitrogen Oxides: How NOx Emissions Affect Human Health and the Environment - The hazards created by power plant emissions and how states can take the lead in reducing them year-round. (72 Kb pdf file)
  Press Release: Environmental Defense Calls on States to Reduce NOx Emissions (12/18/02)
  Report: A Plan For All Seasons: Costs and Benefits of Year-Round NOx Reductions in Eastern States
  Press Release: Ignoring health Risks, EPA to Authorize Air Pollution Increases Nationwide (11/22/02)
  Environmental Defense's Air Quality issue page
  Bush's Pollution Initiative: Clear Skies or Hot Air? - Features an interview with Environmental Defense attorney Vickie Patton (7/16/02) here
  Texas Public Citizen -  Texas State Office of the national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.
  Texas Environmental Profiles - Environmental Defense web site that details the effects of air and water pollution, toxins, energy use and consumption, and other factors on the environmental health of the Lone Star State.
  Scorecard.org - Zip code-based database web site from Environmental Defense that tracks environmental pollutants in your community.
  Contact the Texas Attorney General's Office via their web site.

In the News
  Some See Red Over Bush's Green Policies - Newhouse News Service article (1/6/03)
  9 Northeastern States Challenge Pollution Rule - The New York Times article (1/1/03)
  Every Breath You Take - New York Times Op Ed by Paul Krugman (11/26/2002)