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The U.S. House of Representatives is continuing its assault on public health by denying funding for the enforcement of longstanding protections against toxic air pollution. The funding bill and several amendments set to pass the House later today would effectively take the public health cops off the beat. Under this bill, the U.S. Environmental Protection […]

The Clean Air Act is under siege. Powerful voices claim that we cannot afford both clean air and a strong economy.    There they go again.    These are the same arguments that EPA opponents have been making since 1970. Even the most successful EPA clean air programs have been subject to these same attacks when they […]

By Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D.

Last week we lamented about the TCEQ’s capitulation to industry pressure on proposed rules dealing with emissions from oil and gas facilities. 

State Representative Lon Burnam provided us with a sampling of documents showing the influence exerted by industry during the tail end of the process.  These are just a smattering of the roughly five reams of paper his office received in response to a public information request.

In hopes that it might serve as a resource to others, we are also posting several other documents pertaining to the rulemaking:

• EDF’s comments on the proposed rule
• Report from EDF’s air quality modeling consultant and spreadsheet of results
• Letter from EDF to TCEQ about the exclusion of well emissions
• EPA’s comments on the proposed rule

By Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D.

It was disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising, that Chesapeake Energy and three natural gas industry trade associations filed legal challenges to EPA’s new rule that requires assessment and public disclosure of the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

I find it ironic that the industry that touts itself as the “low-carbon” fossil fuel is fighting efforts to require disclosure of its global warming pollution.

Learn more about this in our news release sent out earlier today.

When someone robs a bank, nobody challenges the legitimacy of banks. They suggest instead that the bank find better security. Why should carbon markets be any different?

By Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D.

After a 10-month process, the TCEQ finally ended the suspense regarding what emissions safeguards the oil and gas industry will have to follow in order to protect the citizens of Texas.   On Wednesday, the TCEQ adopted a much, much weaker rule than the one it proposed in July (see details at the bottom of this post).  The rule was dramatically scaled back to apply only to those living near the Barnett Shale near Dallas-Fort Worth and, miraculously, the process will begin anew to decide what protections will apply elsewhere. 

If you are reading this, you are probably wondering what I think about the outcome.   I’ll answer by telling you what I am going to tell my boss, who will surely ask how my efforts – scores of hours attending meetings, writing comments, coordinating and consulting with experts on this topic (as well as having to watch industry unrelentingly bully TCEQ staff) – translated into results.   

It is a fair question given that I truly threw myself into this one.  I convinced myself (and my boss) that – this time – it was going to be different.  With all of the attention focused on the emissions from natural gas operations, including reports showing how the emissions from the oil and gas industry were much higher than everyone assumed, I thought this time we actually had a chance to help TCEQ do the right thing.   

The most favorable answer I can give is that “it could have been worse.”  Maybe, just maybe, had we not made the effort, the final rule might have been even worse.  What issues went in favor of public health?  The TCEQ did expand the proposed definition of “receptors” that must be protected to include hospitals, day cares, and certain businesses (although this definition is still less protective than many other agency rules).  Oh, and in response to our expert modeler’s numerous examples showing that the agency’s modeling did not represent “worst-case” conditions as claimed, the TCEQ changed their description to “reasonable worst case” (while making numerous other changes that allowed far greater emissions of harmful pollutants than originally proposed).  Sadly, that’s all I can say went in a positive direction. 

The TCEQ’s initial proposal in July would have established a basic framework that provided greater assurances of protectiveness to the public.  But industry firepower overwhelmed the TCEQ staff, which had little, if any, apparent support from their Commissioners.  The final rule was gutted with so many exceptions and loopholes (see below) that it almost makes me wonder if there is sufficient environmental benefit left to justify the regulatory burden.  Especially troubling was the number of sweeping changes made to the rule during a 6-week continuance, out of the public eye, during which time staff was asked to attempt to resolve industry concerns.  

In the end, I have no choice but to admit that my time would have been better spent on something else.  This story is yet one more example of why the legislature’s required sunset review of the TCEQ is so timely.  It is time for the TCEQ to put the protection of public health and the environment first.

On this last point, State Representative Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) who serves on the state’s Sunset Advisory Commission, ably captured the situation in an interview on KUT’s feature “Letters to the Lege” this morning:

“In hearings we’ve held, we’ve heard complaints from all over the state … and there’s definitely an issue at the TCEQ when it comes to the response to citizen complaints. There’s no doubt about it. The EPA is seriously put out with the TCEQ and there’s a real standoff going on right now between the Perry administration and the federal government on how the TCEQ regulates pollutants in Texas. And in my opinion, we need to shake the agency up and make it more responsive to the public.”

At EDF, we completely agree.     

Key Examples Of How The July 2010 Oil & Gas Permit by Rule Proposal Was Weakened:

• Applies only to Barnett Shale. A new rule will have to be developed by January 2012 to apply to the rest of Texas
• Allowable hourly emissions of benzene increased by up to a factor of 20X
• Eliminated formaldehyde emissions limits and protectiveness review
• Increased VOC and other pollution limits, and removed limits for others
• Created an exception for “small operations,” specifically projects with a maximum engine horsepower (450 hp or less depending on fuel), or five defined combinations of emissions sources and components.  These only have to maintain equipment in good working order and maintain a minimum 50-foot setback with no notification to TCEQ required
• Protectiveness review only required for new or modified sites within ¼- or 1/2- mile from a receptor (depending on size of facility), and excludes consideration of existing emissions at modified sites if the off-site concentrations are less than 10%-25% of an Effects Screening Level
• Removed prohibition against increasing emissions of applicable pollutants in an Air Pollutant Watch List Area (where pollution levels already exceed the TCEQ’s own acceptable risk levels)
• Replaced Executive Director’s right to deny a permit for good cause with limited additional pre-conditions for a permit

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. As we enter a new year and legislative season, we face a changed political climate where the thought of new regulation is anything but de rigueur.  I will argue in this post that a little regulation would have done – and still could do – the world of […]

The post Regulating nanomaterials to life, not death first appeared on EDF Health.

Many of us have experienced gaps between knowledge and action. We may know something in theory, but have a hard time putting it into practice. Sometimes we need a little help to take the first step. Last summer, EDF Climate Corps proved that energy efficiency is a win-win solution for businesses to cut costs, energy […]

Great news, today, for anyone who wants cleaner air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced a settlement agreement to establish national emission standards that will address the greenhouse gas pollution from new and existing fossil fuel power plants. The agreement follows litigation launched in 2006 by a wide variety of parties — including EDF — after EPA refused […]

EDF General Counsel Vickie Patton reveals how the state of Texas and Big Coal are prime movers behind a legal campaign attacking EPA’s greenhouse gas pollution cuts for smokestacks and tailpipes. On December 10, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a request that it stay the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from implementing some common […]

Featuring: Dan Grossman Regional Director, EDF Rocky Mountain Office Steve Cochran Vice President, EDF Climate & Air Vickie Patton EDF General Counsel It’s been a year of dramatic ups and downs. The U.S. Senate’s failure to pass climate and energy legislation was a serious setback. But Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and our coalition partners successfully […]

Jennifer Haverkamp is EDF’s Managing Director for International Policy & Negotiations. The deal U.N. climate negotiators reached last week in Cancún is modest, but the gathering’s dramatic conclusion does restore confidence in the U.N. process, which was limping badly after last year’s fiasco in Copenhagen. Observers witnessed one of the most dramatic closing “plenary” sessions […]

The latest South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) meeting resulted in several positive outcomes for fisheries and fishermen, notably the unanimous votes to add details to the snapper grouper and golden crab catch share programs and seek public input on them in early 2011.

Read the full post »

In a world of uncertainty, energy efficiency may be the only sure bet, zero-risk investment.  If you look for energy efficiency opportunities, you will find them—and you will save money.  Period. That’s why GE refers to its energy efficiency-process as the ecomagination “Treasure Hunt.”  And, with help from GE and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), hunting […]

“And they said it couldn’t be done …” When it comes to cleaning up pollution, never underestimate the power of innovation. Five years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) faced a court deadline to regulate mercury pollution from power plants. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that harms brain development in fetuses and growing children. But some […]

“We are all going to be naked,” says my friend Andy Ruben in an intriguing TED talk, “so you might as well get buff.” Referring to transparency in the corporate supply chain, this statement is pretty radical coming from a senior executive at Walmart. Despite its size and the fact that it is publicly traded, […]

For the third time this year, a committee of experts from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) met publicly to discuss sustainable water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta with a particular focus on the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan. It did not take the NAS experts long to reach the same conclusion EDF and others […]

We already know that EPA’s proposed rule to reduce power plant pollution in the eastern U.S. is good for public health. An analysis prepared for Environmental Defense Fund (using EPA methodologies) shows that the sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions from eastern power plants are associated with as many as 60,000 deaths, 3.1 million lost […]

By Steve Schwartzman

The sun and sea in Cancún can almost make you forget how difficult it is to get around the U.N. climate conference here.  Hotels, conference center and meeting venues are far from one another, conference bus routes change unexpectedly, traffic ebbs and flows.

The traffic was certainly a challenge last night as we headed to a resort hotel strangely reminiscent of resort hotels in Bali in the 2007 U.N. climate conference, and it was hard to get to our off-site venue.  So it was surprising to see the room slowly fill up for a conference “side-event” hosted by the government of the State of Acre, one of the poorest and most isolated — but also environmentally progressive — states in the Brazilian Amazon.

Signaling the strong interest in Acre’s state sustainable development program and new state System of Incentives for Ecosystem Services (SISA) law, in the audience were climate heavyweights including the Climate Change Director for Brazil’s Environment Ministry; the head of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s national program to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD); the Environment Secretary for Campeche, Mexico; and France’s Special Ambassador for Climate Change.

What’s particularly impressive about Acre is the political stability it has achieved in the past dozen years, after a tumultuous past.  This is primarily due to the Workers’ Party (PT) winning the governor’s office in 1998, bringing to power the group of people who formed the social movement and stood off ranchers and their gunmen to protect the forest with legendary rubber tapper, union leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes.

Environment Secretary Eufran Amaral gave a detailed breakdown of what the state has achieved through the Workers’ Party’s three terms in government (and about to start a fourth).  The state has increased its GDP while decreasing deforestation, and has built the basis for a sustainable forest-based economy that includes:

• environmental certification programs and incentives for family farmers
• participatory land-use zoning
• subsidies and tax incentives for forest protection
• an ambitious state incentive program for ecosystem services (SISA), which was passed by the state legislature in October and creates the regulatory infrastructure to certify reductions in deforestation and issue marketable carbon credits

State consultant Dr. Gylvan Meira Filho (former head of Brazil’s Space Agency and vice-chair of the IPCC) explained in rigorous detail the state-of-the-art remote sensing analysis Acre is using to establish a baseline and control for leakage and permanence, with seamless, cross-scale coverage from individual properties to the whole state.

Virgilio Gibbon, economist with the prestigious Getúlio Vargas Foundation, addressed financial mechanisms for the state’s REDD and reforestation programs.

But it was Senator Marina Silva, former environment minister and green party candidate for president, who kept everyone in their seats until the end.  Listening to Marina talk, it’s not hard to understand how she got more than 19% of the vote – from nearly 20 million Brazilians – in the last presidential election, despite her being allotted one minute of TV time per day to campaign, compared to the half-hour allotted to her principal opponent.

I won’t try and capture the extensive landscape she covered, but in one of the more moving parts of her speech she recalled that back when Chico Mendes was alive, she thought nobody else in the world (except perhaps me) cared about what was happening in Acre or the social movement’s issues.  But with time she came to see that there were other people outside of Acre who shared their vision – that they were part of a planetary community of thought that is seeking the same ends, a sustainable and equitable future for the planet.

Like most all here in Cancún, Marina thinks industrialized countries need to take more responsibility for climate change.  It’s not, she said, only a question of emissions, but also of omissions (in particular, omissions in making real commitments to deal with the climate change crisis.)  If we reduce omissions, reducing emissions will follow.

Acre is a good example of what’s most needed here in Cancún, and in the world: vision, pragmatism and the conviction and persistence to make change even when it seems impossibly difficult and distant.

When Chico Mendes was murdered in 1988, almost no one thought the social movement would ever amount to much.  But ten years after he was killed, Chico Mendes came to power in Acre. Last night we heard a lot about how far the state got in the following ten years, and where it's going now.

Last month, Acre and the Mexican state of Chiapas signed an agreement with California through which those states can define the criteria for allowing reduced deforestation to enter California’s carbon market.  This is a major step towards transforming living forests from a problem — and obstacle to development — into a solution for the peoples of the forest and for climate change, as Chico thought they needed to become.

But what’s needed above all in Cancún is to put good ideas into action – as Acre has done, and as Marina did in making Brazil a world leader in emissions reductions.  And while Chico’s home of Xapuri, Acre is a long way from California, I’m sure Chico was there on the stage with Governor Schwarzenegger at the signing of the agreement between their states, and here in Cancún, too.

This is part of a series from EDF's experts, who are blogging regularly from the U.N. climate conference in Cancún on EDF's Climate Talks blog.

There they go again. Economic meltdown. Higher consumer costs. Massive job losses. These are among the predictions of doom surrounding EPA’s current and forthcoming round of clean air protections. If they sound familiar, they should. Time and again, from the enactment of the Clean Air Act in 1970 to today, prophets of doom have predicted […]