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Econotes by Erika McDonald
MTBE debate stalls federal energy bill
Making national
headlines is debate over a locally produced fuel additive that has stalled
a vote on the controversial energy bill before congress. MTBE, or methyl-tertiary butyl ether is added to gasoline to make it burn cleaner. But if ingested at high levels the chemical can cause cancer. With 90 percent of MTBE production occurring along the Texas Gulf Coast, local environmentalists say manufacturers should take responsibility if MTBE contaminates the drinking water supply. MTBE molecules are lighter and thinner than gasoline making it expensive and almost impossible to cleanup. Republicans like DeLay argue the chemical is a necessary tool in helping improve Houston air quality by reducing tailpipe emissions. Environmentalists in Houston and across the country have argued that if congress is worried about air quality, they should raise commercial auto efficiency standards instead of relying on a potentially harmful, chemical additive. The controversy
threatened to derail the Republican-led effort to complete the most comprehensive
rehaul of US energy policy within the last decade. A federal appeals court last month upheld a Texas plan to reduce ozone levels in the Houston/Galveston area. Environmentalists and business leaders had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a state pollution plan to bring the Houston-Galveston region into compliance with national ozone standards by 2007 as required by the federal Clean Air Act. The court ruled last month that the Environmental Protection Agency, in charge of enforcing the act, followed the law when it signed off on the plan in late 2001. The petitioners argued that the plan, as it was submitted, fell 56 tons per day short of the nitrogen oxide reductions needed to meet the federal requirements by 2007. Since the plan was passed, the state - under pressure from industry-has opted to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides industrial plants must slash. John Wilson, executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention, one of the groups involved in the suit, said he was disappointed with the court's decision. "This legal ruling is bad for the health of the people of Houston. They are the real losers," Wilson said. "I think what the court is saying here is that the EPA has the authority to make wrong and bad decisions.” But local, state and federal officials insisted the plan will be updated and adjusted in the future. The court's
decision may be found at"
Houston plant among worst contributers to global warming
Legislation currently under debate in Congress could benefit Texans, who are among those who suffer most from power plants that fail to meet modern emissions standards, according to a report released by Texas Public Interest Research Group. The Edwards-Lieberman amendment of a Senate appropriations bill would have allowed states to ignore recent changes to the EPA’s New Source Review program. Under the Bush administration, NSR was revised to let old power plants modify their facilities without installing the latest pollution control technology. The amendment failed, but TXPIRG continues to lobby against regulatory rollbacks they say will increase national levels of soot and smog by 10 million tons. A study, released by the group to coincide with the Senate vote, found most of the pollution comes from the South, including Texas where more than 90 percent of emissions come from the state’s grandfathered plants. At a press conference in downtown Houston, TXPIRG organizer Stephanie Gros singled out one local company, Centerpoint Energy as one of the worst polluters in the nation and one of the top five contributors to global warming. The company owns Parish, a coal-burning power plant in Fort Bend County that ranks third in the nation for carbon dioxides, commonly blamed for global warming, and 40th in the nation for sulfur dioxide emissions. Leticia Lowe, a spokesperson for Centerpoint’s Houston office, downplayed the Parish plant’s contribution to global warming. She said carbon dioxide, though linked to climate change, was not considered a pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmentalists have argued global warming is of particular concern in Houston where sprawling communities and expanding freeways abound. Congressional efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions have stalled under the Bush administration. Lowe said the company’s Parish plant shows high emissions, when compared to other plants around the country, because it produces more electricity, generating 14,000 megawatts for the state. She denied the high levels could be blamed on out-of-date technology. She said Parish emissions remained within federal limits assessed in 1990 and, since 1999, the plant had reduced its nitrogen oxide emissions, a major component of ozone. But Gros said plants in and around the Houston region, like Parish reduced nitrogen oxide emissions, in order to meet a 2007 deadline to comply with federal ozone standards. She said Texas used a "piecemeal" approach to regulation. She recommended regulators consider all four chemicals released by smokestacks (nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury) to achieve similar reductions. The TXPIRG study, "Lethal Legacy" found that more than half of all plant emissions, both in Texas and nationally, could be eliminated if the old NSR rule were strictly enforced. A spokesperson for the EPA’s regional office was unable to comment on the NSR rule change.
City set to implement plan for blighted land
More than four years after it was first approved, city officials are poised to begin an ambitious program intended to transform blighted, tax-delinquent property into affordable housing and other new development. The City Council last month approved a new agreement with other local taxing jurisdictions to launch the Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority, which would sell abandoned property to developers at below-market prices to promote construction of housing that Houston's low- and moderate-income families can afford. "It's an experiment, and as it works, we would be open to bringing other neighborhoods in," said Steve Tinnermon, Mayor Lee Brown's chief of staff, who has been instrumental in working out details of the program in recent months. City officials and some community activists say the program could improve conditions in deteriorating neighborhoods, relieve the city of the burden of maintaining abandoned property, shore up the tax base and increase the stock of badly needed affordable housing. "We have lots of low-income families that live in the Fifth Ward, and lots of them would like to own homes," said Sarah Williams, a Fifth Ward resident and president of the Houston chapter of Acorn, a grass-roots housing advocacy organization. The Fifth Ward, northeast of downtown, and the Third Ward on the southeast side will be the first areas to benefit from the program. City officials have identified 217 lots in those areas that qualify for foreclosure and redevelopment. Inside Loop 610 alone, city officials say, more than 8,000 tracts of land meet the criteria for the program. Among other standards, the property must have at least a six-year tax delinquency, along with tax judgments that exceed its market value. The concept of turning such property into affordable housing has had broad support since it surfaced in the late 1990s. Jurisdictional turf battles and other problems, however, have delayed the program. The new agreement among the taxing jurisdictions includes changes that reflect concerns expressed by Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee, who held up county approval of the plan almost three years ago. After receiving City Council approval, the agreement must be approved by the boards of the Houston Community College System, the Harris County Department of Education and the Port of Houston Authority. City officials said the college board is expected to approve the agreement Thursday, and approval by the other two boards is expected on Nov. 17. The county commissioners court, the Houston Independent School District and other taxing jurisdictions already have approved it. Among those waiting anxiously for the program to begin are Houston's nonprofit community development corporations, or CDCs, which would have the first option to buy properties that the redevelopment authority acquires through foreclosure. "CDCs throughout the city are very interested in the pilot program being a success so that it can be expanded citywide," said Mary Lawler, president of Avenue CDC and Houston's CDC Association. Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, released a statement timed to coincide with the vote urging Houston's new mayor to make the land assemblage program a priority. The group said the program could help to prevent gentrification that would push low-income people out of inner-city neighborhoods. The plan has received approval
from Harris County Commissioners Court, the Houston school district and
other taxing jurisdictions, but still
must be
approved by
the boards of the Houston Community College System, the county Education
Department and the Port of Houston Authority.
Campaign report says Houston developers have too much influence
A coalition of civic groups including the Sierra Club gathered in downtown Houston Tuesday to announce that the average Houstonian can’t afford access to local politics. A report released this week by Campaigns for People, an advocacy group for electoral reform, revealed that 90 percent of contributions to Houston’s successful mayoral campaigns came from donations larger than $1,000 and more than half were larger than $5,000. The average city council race costs more than $300,000 to win. The average Houstonian makes $24,000 per year. The report found the largest contributors to city campaigns were
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