A sunset bill that continues the operations of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates the electric and telephone industries, won approval Wednesday from the House, though the legislation would adjust how the commission works.
Seated at center, State Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horshoe Bay) hears testimony on his bill to end contested hearings at the TCEQ.
Update, April 16, 2013: The Senate Natural Resources Committee voted 6-3 in favor of the bill, SB 957, today. Senators Nichols, Seliger, Eltife, Hegar, Estes and Fraser voted in favor of the bill, while Senators Duncan, Ellis and Uresti voted against it. Two Senators were absent. The bill now heads for to the Senate floor.
Original story, March 20, 2013:
It’s a familiar story. A landfill, a power plant, or maybe a factory wants to open in Texas. Members of the surrounding community protest, fearing the environmental impacts. Their challenge goes before an administrative law judge, who passes his or her decision back to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Now, a bill at the state capitol would dramatically change that process.
Under Senate Bill 957, authored by State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horshoe Bay, contested hearings for permits issued by the the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would end. The hearings, although only applied in about one percent of permit applications, according to both supporters and detractors of the bill, have been a standard way for people to fight permits issued at the TCEQ.
An oil refinery in Texas City, Texas. A new bill could help streamline the greenhouse gas permitting process.
Update: HB 788, which would put greenhouse gas permitting into the hands of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), passed out of the House this week. No amendments to the bill were added. Mike Heim, a Texas oil and gas executive, previously told the House Natural Resources Committee that moving the permitting process to the TCEQ could bring millions of dollars to the state. Opponents said the bill strips the public’s power to contest a pollution permit. The bill now heads to the Senate Natural Resources Committee.Â
Time is money in the energy industry, and oil and natural gas executives say the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is wasting their time. In particular, they say the EPA takes too long to issue greenhouse gas permits.
Mike Heim, President and Chief Operating Officer of Targa Resources and President of the Gas Processors Association, a natural gas trade association, testified in favor of the bill. He said the slow permitting process has affected his bottom line.
“If I had known it would have taken this long to get a permit, I probably would have gone to Louisiana and built my plant over there,” Heim said. “I’ve lost $90 million worth of revenue in a year waiting for this (permit) that I will never recoup.”
Original Story, March 5, 2013: Texas is in a third year of drought, with 89 percent of the state in some level of drought conditions according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor Map. In Texas, landscaping can make up about 30 percent of residential water use, and that goes up during dry times like these. While many Texans are cutting back on their water use by switching to drought-friendly landscaping, some may find an obstacle in their way: Homeowners Associations (HOAs). A new bill in the state legislature would change that.Â
“It’s about personal property rights,” Watson testified this morning as he presented his bill to the State Senate Natural Resources Committee. “It’s about allowing Texans to protect themselves from drought and manage their water bills.” Continue Reading →
Employees at Omni Water Solutions working on the "HIPPO," a mobile frackwater recycling unit.
In an Austin warehouse, a four-year-old company called Omni Water Solutions is working on a way to recycle water used in hydraulic fracturing. Its technology involves a large container, dubbed a “Hippo,” that purifies water from oilfields via filters and other means. The scrubbed water could potentially be reused in the fracking process, which requires roughly 4 million to 6 million gallons of water per well.
Warren Sumner, Omni’s chief executive, said that during field trials in 2011, he had even showered in the company’s recycled water, when his trailer ran low on fresh water.
The recycled water was free of chlorine and hardness, and “you’d be amazed how good you feel – especially after washing your hair,” Sumner said.
Technologies like Omni’s are developing rapidly amid rising interest in recycling Texas’ oilfield water. Continue Reading →
Ron Curry at a Superfund site with Harris County officials
Ron Curry is the EPA’s new administrator for Region 6, overseeing enforcement of federal pollution laws in New Mexico (where he once headed that state’s environment department), Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and in Texas.
Texas, where the state has gone to court to stop the EPA from enforcing pollution laws. Texas is also where the previous EPA regional administrator, Al Armendariz, had a rocky relationship with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Armendariz left last year to join the Sierra Club after a firestorm erupted when he was heard on a video using the word “crucify” as he explained how tough his staff could be on the worst polluters.
While American homes have grown larger and larger over the years on average, a small group has decided to buck that trend to live tiny. Really small. As in, under 200 square feet small.  A new film, ‘TINY,’ which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin last week, takes a look inside this movement while chronicling the story of one man’s adventure building his own diminutive home.
With a lot of elbow grease and some instructional help from YouTube (along with some funding from Kickstarter), filmmaker Christopher Smith set out in the spring of 2011 to build his own tiny, 124 square foot house for a plot of isolated land in Colorado. While he originally budgeted three months for the build, it ended up taking him a year.
The advantages to such a tiny home? Adherents in the documentary say they can live nearly debt-free (the director estimates his own tiny house cost him $26,000), along with low power bills and taxes. They say they’re doing it more for peace of mind and money as opposed to environmental reasons.
For one of the leaders of the tiny house movement, it’s more of a philosophy than a strict code. Continue Reading →
Photo Illustration by Miguel Villagran/Getty Images
A new EPA report says that fuel efficiency is the highest its ever been, while vehicle emissions are down.
A new report says you’re likely to be feeling less pain at the pump than in years past – and not just because gas prices are down a bit this week. Cars and trucks are getting better mileage than ever, and the air is cleaner as a result.
The new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report says that greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks are at their lowest levels in decades. Fuel economy, meanwhile, is the highest it’s ever been. The report says that in just the last five years, fuel economy went up sixteen percent. The average fuel economy these days is now 23 miles per gallon, and that’s expected to double under new federal standards by 2025. The EPA says all the advances in fuel efficiency will save the equivalent of twelve billion barrels of oil in that time frame.
What’s behind the change? The report credits a transition to fuel injection from carburetors, and even more recent advances in fuel injection technology. That’s in addition to slightly larger market for hybrid and diesel vehicles, and better mileage options overall. “There are almost 3 times more SUVs with combined labels of 25 mpg or more and 6Â times more cars with ratings of 30 mpg or more,” the report says.
The Texas Attorney General says the TCEQ, the state's environmental regulator, was not responsible for killing 23 rare whooping cranes.
UPDATE: Late Friday afternoon State Attorney General Abbot’s request to stay the ruling on TCEQ water management was denied, according to The Aransas Project, the plaintiffs in the case.
However, the language of Judge Jack’s original order (the one the state was trying to stay) was amended to allow the TCEQ to approve water permits from the Guadalupe and San Antonio River basins which are “necessary to protect the public’s health and safety.”
You can find the document denying the stay and amending the original order here.
Earlier this week, a federal judge found the state’s environmental agency guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act. The ruling, which could have implications for the water management across the state, said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)Â was responsible for the deaths of 23 rare Whooping Cranes. It prohibited the TCEQ from issuing new water use permits for the Guadalupe and San Antonio River unless the Agency could prove that the cranes would not be impacted.
Today, the Texas Attorney General said the state would appeal that ruling, and sought an emergency stay from the federal district court while the state plans that appeal.
The Lucas Derrick, named after Anthony F. Lucas, stands atop Spindletop Hill in Beaumont, Texas. Beaumont was the sight of Texas's first oil gusher January 10, 1901.
The House Energy Resources Committee heard hours of testimony on Wednesday on House Bill 100, also known as the ‘unitization bill.’
What exactly does that mean, and why is it garnering such a heated reaction?
It means that the Railroad Commission of Texas would be able to designate areas for drilling in which the holders of a majority of mineral rights in the area can extract oil and gas, even if a minority of the holders does not want to. That designation would be made at the request of property owners or companies that hold the leases to the mineral rights.
In Taylor’s bill, the number is split 70/30. That means if holders of 70 percent of the mineral rights in an area agree, drillers can move forward with “operations intended to increase the ultimate recovery of oil, gas or oil and gas from a common source of supply,” according to the bill, even if the other 30 percent are opposed.
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