ACT Lauds 77th Legislature
By Lily Auliff

Many environmentalists are declaring the 77th Texas Legislature, which closed at the end of May, a success. “I think, overall, the session was the most positive one for the environment in about a decade,” says Ken Kramer, Director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and spokesperson for the Alliance for a Clean Texas (ACT), a coalition of religious, consumer, outdoor recreation, and environmental organizations. “We made progress and didn’t suffer any major setbacks.”

Important environmental victories include reforms to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC), closure of the “grandfather” loophole, and blocking of a bill that would have allowed private companies to import large amounts of radioactive waste.

Kramer gives several reasons behind these successes. After last session, negative publicity about the Texas environment brought pollution problems into the limelight. “I think that genuinely embarrassed some state leaders who didn’t like that image of Texas being portrayed, and legitimately saw some problems that needed to be dealt with,” he explains.

And Texas didn’t have a governor running for president this session, as was the case in 1999. “During that session, practically anything that took place was viewed from the context of how it was going to affect Bush’s presidential campaign,” notes Kramer. “Nobody wanted to buck the governor’s environmental policies.”

TNRCC, the state’s main environmental regulatory agency, was up for its 12-year Sunset review this session as well. The review process requires new legislation in order to continue an agency’s existence. The fact that a bill had to be passed gave activists leverage to achieve reforms.

Impending air quality deadlines and the prospect of losing federal funds for non-attainment of standards added pressure as well.

And finally, Kramer thinks a more coordinated lobbying effort among environmental groups helped. “We put together an informal Alliance for a Clean Texas and adopted a common environmental agenda,” he explains. “That helped us focus attention and focus resources.”

Specific Legislation:
HB 2912 - TNRCC Reformed
HB 2912 creates a new regulatory scheme for TNRCC that gives flexibility to industry with proven track records and is tougher on chronic rule breakers. The bill requires TNRCC to consider the cumulative impacts of pollution when issuing new permits. Steps were also taken to improve the credibility of the contested case process, allowing citizens a bigger say in the permitting process.

Besides reforming TNRCC, HB 2912 banned hazardous waste disposal in salt domes, established stronger industry requirements for unexpected pollution releases, and closed the “grandfather” loophole. The grandfather loophole exempted older plants – those established before the 1970 Clean Air Act – from the standard environmental permitting process. Under this new legislation, all grandfathered facilities in the state must install equipment that conforms to a 10-year-old standard of “Best Available Control Technology” (BACT) by 2008.

Although most consider HB 2912 a success, there were some disappointments associated with the bill. Many environmentalists hoped the Sunset legislation would make TNRCC’s environmental public defender, the Office of Public Interest Counsel, into an independent, governor-appointed body in order to ensure citizens’ fair representation. An amendment that would have eliminated the “volume discount” for polluters, which caps the tonnage that TNRCC applies fees to, was also unsuccessful.

SB 1541 - Radioactive Waste Import Bill Stopped
SB 1541 would have allowed a private, for-profit company to establish two dumps to handle low-level radioactive waste produced by several states and the Department of Energy. The bill died in committee in the House.

SB 5 – Clean Air Incentives Established
SB 5 provides a variety of incentives to retrofit equipment and purchase low-emission vehicles. Because it establishes a voluntary program, it is difficult to predict what the real impact of this potentially significant bill will be.

SB 1128 – Highways Beautified
SB 1128, originally co-authored by Scenic Texas, and Trees for Houston, protects portions of 13 Texas roads from new billboard construction. It also requires the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to use “context sensitive design,” which considers the scenic and aesthetic character of the area, with new construction projects. The state’s budget also requires TxDOT to spend 0.5 to 1 percent of their funds on landscaping in non-attainment or near-non-attainment areas.

HB 2204 and SB 238 – Bike Bills
The Matthew Brown Act (HB 2204), named for an 11-year-old killed by a pickup truck while riding his bicycle along a sidewalk, provides for compilation of bicycle/pedestrian accident statistics by the Department of Public Safety, a Safe Routes to School Program, and exemption of bike operators from keeping to the right if the outside lane is less than 14 feet. The bill also defines electric bikes and establishes regulations for them. SB 238, which would have allowed counties to arbitrarily ban bikes from certain roads, died in committee.