TransCanada, a pipeline company out of Canada, wants to build a pipeline to bring the dirtiest kind of oil in the world from tar sands mines in Alberta, Canada to refineries in Houston and Beaumont. This oil is many times dirtier than conventional crude and allowing Houston area refineries to process it would increase air pollution throughout the region. The tar sands mines in Alberta are devastating the Boreal forest ecosystem, laying waste to a region the size of Florida and poisoning the people who live downstream. The first permit this pipeline needs is the Presidential Permit, which goes through the State Department. The comment period on this project is open until July 2 – to submit comments online go here. For more information on tar sands oil visit dirtyoilsands.org and to stay updated on tar sands news in Texas keep coming back here to Texas Vox, and visit our main webpage on tar sands here. Continue Reading »
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Transportation | Tagged canada, deis, draft environmental impact statement, Global Warming, hearings, meeting, oil, pipeline, state department, Tar Sands, tarsands, Texas |
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to set federal safeguards for millions of tons of dangerous coal ash waste currently being stored in dry dumps and waste ponds. You can help set EPA on a straight course towards the first ever strong, federally enforceable safeguards for coal ash. And judging from the current proposal, it seems like the EPA can use our help.
Texas leads the nation in coal ash waste production so final rules could have significant impact in keeping Texans safe from toxic waste, blighting our landscape and polluting our groundwater. According to the EPA, if the weaker coal ash option were put in place, coal ash dumps and waste ponds in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming will retain their status quo: poorly regulated, unprotected and unsafe. Even in Tennessee, where in December 2008 a coal ash pond in Kingston collapsed, spilling over 1 billion gallons of the toxic waste across 300 acres, will not have protections in place to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.
If you want EPA to hold a public hearing on the proposed coal ash waste rule in your area, you need to request one. Requests for a public meeting should be submitted to EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery by July 21, 2010. Continue Reading »
Posted in Coal | Tagged coal ash waste, EPA, Public Hearings, Texas |
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtpSgqUZ3oA]
A few days ago, Larry King interviewed T. Boone Pickens and if you were watching it, you heard him condemn the spill and the US dependence on oil then he raved about natural gas and how safe it is to drill for it.
Pickens is not the first. Many have claimed that natural gas is better, safer, and cheaper. Simply, that is not the case. I have written about a couple of natural gas blow outs and pipe fractures in Texas this month alone but this documentary examines several other elements of natural gas impact than just rigs blowing up.
Yesterday, HBO aired a documentary that is both eye-opening and disturbing. It is called GasLand, in which Josh Fox, the director travels across the United States to explore the damage and contamination that has resulted from drilling for natural gas. In the documentary, Fox points out the different impacts of natural gas; on our drinking water, the air we breathe, and the nature that surrounds us. If the pictures of evaporating water mixed gas into the air to get rid of the waste (process done by gas-drilling facilities) won’t tell how bad natural gas is, then I am pretty sure watching people lighting their contaminated faucet water on fire will.
Fox collects water samples from homes with contaminated water and sends them to a lab for examination. I will leave it to you to watch his outrageous findings in the documentary.
In case you missed it, Josh Fox’s GasLand will be airing on HBO at the following (central) times:
Thursday, June 24: 12:00PM
Thursday, June 24: 11:30PM
Saturday, June 26: 11:00AM
Wednesday, June 30: 08:45AM
For more information, visit the HBO schedule page or the webpage for GasLand.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, natural gas, Renewables, solar | Tagged air pollution, Air Quality, documentary, drinking water, faucet on fire, fracking, gasland, HBO, HBO Documentaries, josh fox, Larry King, Larry King Live, natural gas drilling, oil and gas wells, pipe explosion, rig explosion, T. Boone Pickens, Texas, water, water on fire, Water Pollution, Water Quality |
EPA offers two options for coal ash: one good, one very, very bad Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged EPA, Texas |
From the Austin Business Journal:
The finalists include Ronald Davis, Larry Weis and David Wright.
- Ronald Davis (Burbank, Calif.) Davis has worked 30 years in the electric industry and has led Burbank Water and Power for the last 12 years. Burbank Water and Power is a municipal utility in urban Southern California with a 2009 budget of $410 million and a peak electrical load of 308 megawatts. The company adopted a 33 percent renewable energy portfolio standard in 2007.
- Larry Weis (Turlock, Calif.) Weis is the general manager and CEO for the Turlock Irrigation District, one of the 30 largest public power utilities in the U.S., which provides water and electricity to Central Valley California. He has 29 years of experience in the electric industry, including 20 years as a general manager. TID is currently supplying 28 percent of its annual energy requirements from renewable resources.
- David Wright (Riverside, Calif.) Wright is the general manager for the City of Riverside’s public utilities. He’s worked in the sector for more than 22 years. The Riverside Public Utilities group serves more than 300,000 residents with an annual budget of more than $500 million. He is a Certified Public Accountant and former finance director for San Diego County Water Authority. He was also city controller for Riverside before taking joining Riverside’s public utility.
As the energy industry changes rapidly, this hiring decision is critical. We will look forward to hearing more about these candidates in the coming days.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, green jobs | Tagged Austin, Austin Energy, Energy Efficiency, green jobs, public citizen texas, Texas |
Background: What the controversy is all about
On May 25, 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) barred the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) from issuing a permit to a refinery in Corpus Christi. EPA said that the process used to justify that permit violated the Clean Air Act. EPA’s Region 6 Administrator, Al Armendariz, also stated that the EPA would block future permits and force polluters to comply with EPA standards if the TCEQ did not change its rules. On June 14th, EPA announced it was taking over the process for two additional air-quality permits
At issue are two types of air permits used in Texas – one known as a “flex permit” and one known as a “plant-wide applicability limit.” In both cases, instead of issuing permits that limit pollution from each individual point-source (e.g. a smokestack), TCEQ limits pollution for entire facilities, allowing operators to emit more pollution from one stack if another stack was emitting less. Studies indicate that there would be greater emission reductions if limits were done on a stack-by-stack basis.
These permits make enforcement extremely difficult at vast petrochemical and refining facilities. They also fail to protect people from emission clouds that can occur as a result of letting one stack emit more than would be allowed under the Clean Air Act.
Suppressed reports add fuel to the fire
The flex permit controversy had been brewing for some time as EPA and TCEQ battled behind closed doors, secretly playing a game of chicken with air pollution regulations. Meanwhile, another controversy was broiling beneath the surface in Fort Worth. Elected officials from the area felt they were getting the run-around from TCEQ when they asked whether natural gas drilling and processing on the Barnett Shale was putting residents’ health at risk.
On June 1st, TCEQ admitted they had failed to divulge (i.e. suppressed) reports showing elevated benzene levels in the area. In a statement, Mark Vickery said TCEQ “missed an opportunity” to “bolster their confidence in the quality of the air.” In reality, TCEQ knowingly presented inaccurate air-quality information to leaders and decision makers for months. Soon after, TCEQ admitted that 3 additional air-quality reports had not been made public. Continue Reading »
Posted in Good Government, Sunset | Tagged emissions, EPA, glenn shankle, Mark Vickery, Oak Grove, perry, Sunset, TCEQ, Texas, waste control specialists, WCS |
TransCanada's map for the proposed pipeline.
While the Department of Energy took a step towards cutting the emissions of the state by approving a Carbon Capture and Storage project for Texas which will start early next year, a nasty tar-sand Pipeline is set to penetrate through Texas land and be completed by late 2011. The first segment of the line which extends from Alberta to Illinois has already been completed and will be functioning next month. The second segment (Texas and Oklahoma) of the Keystone XL line will be built by the Canadian oil and pipeline company, TransCanada.
The line will end in Houston, where the crude oil will be refined. In addition to the fact that pipelines are not the safest to be around as we saw a couple of them blow up just in the past week, the line will carry tar-sands, one of the dirtiest sources of oil. This source of oil is estimated to have as much as three times more emissions than other oil sources when produced, keep in mind that it will be refined in Houston, a city that is already in non attainment of federal air quality standards.
TransCanada also applied for a special permit to build the line thinner than what the standards require. The segment already built in Illinois was approved for using a thinner pipe, a method which the United Steelworkers had warned last year that it “would increase the risks of ruptures, leaks and spills and lessen pipeline safety by the use of thinner pipe and greater operating pressure.” State Department approval for the Texas-Oklahoma segment is pending.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Global Warming, Toxics | Tagged Houston refinary., keystone xl, oklahoma-texas pipeline, tar sand, tar sand pipeline, Texas, transcanada, tx pipelines |
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings Early Site Permit (ESP) application for the Victoria County site near Victoria, Texas.
The application and associated information were initially submitted on March 25 and is available, minus proprietary and security-related details, on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/esp/victoria.html.
Exelon’s application seeks approval for safety and environmental issues for the site, approximately 13 miles south of Victoria. If approved by the NRC this would give Exelon three to 20 years to decide whether to build a plant in Victoria County. It can be extended for another 20 years, giving the company up to 40 years to begin construction from the time that the NRC approves the permit.
Now the site permit application will undergo a three- to four-year review process by the NRC in which it will evaluate the project’s environmental impact and safety preparedness.
Water use figures prominently into the concerns of many. The Guadalupe River is the designated water source for the possible power plant, and Exelon has a water reservation agreement with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) that expires in 2013. Continue Reading »
Posted in Nuclear | Tagged Exelon, NRC, Nuclear, Nuclear Power, Texas, tx, Victoria |
At a time when lax regulatory oversight has contributed to such catastrophic problems for our nation as the financial crisis and the BP oil spill, Texas may be in the process of setting itself up for a fiscally disastrous and environmentally catastrophic future – all because of a vote by an appointed committee taking place out on the dusty, lonely edges of West Texas.
The hearing on plans to expand the low-level radioactive waste facility in Andrews County, that was postponed last month because of the volume of comments for official review, has been rescheduled for Saturday, and opponents of the facility are stepping up their opposition. Continue Reading »
Posted in Nuclear, TCEQ | Tagged Nuclear, nuclear waste, Texas, waste |
This footage is of the town hall event that was held in Bay City in April. Though invited, White Stallion representatives refused to show up to answer questions from the public. Some Bay City officials, including Mr. Owen Bludau of the Matagorda Economic Development Corporation and Judge Nate McDonald did attend to voice their positions and to answer questions that pertained to them. This footage is for public/educational use and may be duplicated and distributed freely by all.
[vimeo 11720643] Continue Reading »
Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, TCEQ, Toxics | Tagged Carbon Dioxide, Coal, coal plant, Global Warming, Public Citizen, Texas |
Video footage of a public meeting back in March for the Dallas, TX region. EPA has proposed a new NOx attainment standard, and this meeting was held during the comment period. Though an official EPA meeting had been held in Houston, there was no official meeting for Dallas (where Region 6 offices of EPA are located) so a number of environmental groups got together to host and sponsor this event. The last video is of some folks who didn’t speak at the event itself but who wanted to submit video comments to the EPA. The event was sponsored by Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Texas Campaign for the Environment, Downwinders at Risk, and other individuals and environmental organizations. Rep. Lon Burnam presided over the entire meeting and was joined throughout by Mayor Cluck of Arlington, TX and other representatives and officials, including one from the TCEQ.
Press Conference
[vimeo 11089828]
Posted in Global Warming, TCEQ | Tagged clean air, Clean Energy, climate change, Coal, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Global Warming, ozone, Texas |
The Capital Power Plant on Capitol Hill
Tomorrow, Thursday June 10, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) “Disapproval Resolution” will be voted on in the Senate. If passed, it would overturn the EPA’s “endangerment finding”, undermining the Clean Air Act- which by the way is the most successful piece of environmental legislation- and stripping the EPA of its right to regulate Greenhouse Gas emissions.
Congress has the audacity to claim that global warming is their domain, not the EPA’s. If this is true, it’s baffling that the EPA has been taking action to curb greenhouse gas emissions while all the Senate has done is sit on greenhouse gas legislation.
Murkowski’s resolution, because it will be voted on under the Congressional Review Act, only needs 51 votes to pass the Senate and move on to the House. Murkowski has already locked in 40 co-sponsors and is not revealing how many additional votes she has secured. But while she might get her resolution through the Senate without too much sweat, getting enough votes in the House and the approval of the White House- Obama has already threatened to veto it- promises to be more of a challenge.
This is not the only bill that those of us in favor letting the EPA protect our clean air need to keep our eyes on. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) will try to push his own bill, which if passed would block the EPA from regulating the greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources such as power plants and oil refineries for two years, through the Senate. He needs 60 votes and is less confident about its getting through the Senate, but either way, he has said, he will vote in favor of Murkowski’s resolution.
Russell Train, former EPA chief wrote a letter urging Republic Senators Reid and McConnell to vote against Murkowski’s resolution:
I am writing as former EPA Administrator under the Nixon and Ford Administrations to urge the Senate to oppose any legislative proposals that would undermine the Clean Air Act. In particular, I ask the Senate to reject the Resolution of Disapproval offered by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (S.J.Res.26), which would prevent the EPA from acting on that agency’s endangerment finding and the cause or contribute findings for greenhouse gases.
For 40 years, the Clean Air Act has protected the health and welfare of the American people, saving hundreds of thousands of lives while vastly improving the quality of the air we breathe. The economic benefits provided by the Act have exceeded its costs by between 10 to 100 times over.
Despite the law’s impressive track record, S.J.Res.26 would rollback Clean Air Act protections and prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, notwithstanding the agency’s scientific determination that these pollutants endanger human health and welfare. If passed, this resolution would fundamentally undermine the Clean Air Act, overturning science in favor of political considerations. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged EPA, Global Warming, greenhouse gas emissions, Texas |
After Monday’s deadly explosion of a pipeline in Johnson County, there was another explosion in the Panhandle today. From the Austin-American Statesman:
The blast near Darrouzett, just south of the Oklahoma border, was the second fatal natural gas explosion in Texas in as many days. On Monday, a worker was killed when a utility crew accidentally hit and ruptured a natural gas line in rural Johnson County, about 30 miles south of Fort Worth.
Tuesday’s blast involved a crew that was removing clay for a dirt-contracting company, Lipscomb County Sheriff James Robertson said in a news release. The explosion happened when a bulldozer struck a pipeline.
***
Three other workers were injured. One was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Oklahoma City. Two others escaped with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
The utility crew involved in Monday’s explosion worked for Oklahoma-based C&H Power Line Construction Services. Fred Haag, the company’s chief operating officer, said the crew followed the proper procedures in locating the line before digging. It used a survey map and made calls verifying the line location, he said.
***
“Even at night, the soles of their shoes were melting because it was still extremely hot,” said Jack Snow, Johnson County’s emergency management coordinator.
At least seven of the other 13 workers who had been close to the site were treated at hospitals, mostly for burns to their necks and arms as they ran away from the massive fireball, Haag said. Only one worker remained hospitalized Tuesday, he said.
A 23-member crew that had been working in the area for several months was drilling a hole Monday for an 80- to 120-foot utility pole when the gas line was struck and ruptured, sending a massive fireball into the air that burned out about two hours later after the gas flow was shut off.
***
After investigators finish looking over the site, workers will repair the ruptured pipeline, which is expected to take several days, said Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP, which partially owns the 36-inch-diameter line. It is a 395-mile segment of a pipeline extending from western to eastern Texas, the company said in a Tuesday news release.
Unlike other cases (BP oil spill, Massey mine explosion, etc) this does not look like a problem of lax oversight, but merely the inherent dangers of fossil fuels. As I wrote in a editor’s note in Ali’s post:
All of this comes back to our reliance on fossil fuels and regulation. Whether it’s oil, coal, or even natural gas, there are inherent risks in extracting these fuels from the earth and dangerous, toxic emissions that come from burning them. To date, no one has been killed in a “wind spill” or “solar spill.” We ultimately need less of the fossil fuel resources, no matter their source, and more renewables. Oftentimes small government advocates and conservatives warn against regulation because of the cost it can create. We never advocate for regulation merely for the sake of regulation, but we NEED smart regulation that places a premium on human life and quality of life over the search for more corporate profits. All of these stories have this theme in common: common sense regulation through a smart regulatory agency, which is something we have lacked from TCEQ.
Posted in Energy | Tagged explosion, fossil fuels, pipeline, Renewables, Texas |
Johnson County Gas Pipeline Explosion
While the BP rig is still gushing oil out into the ocean, several events (positive and negative ones) have taken place in Texas without receiving the coverage they deserve. I wanted to shed some light on those events.
One bright point to start your day is a Texas Tech researcher who has received EPA approval for his fibertect product that can potentially be a “slick solution for the biggest environmental disaster in the US history.” Essentially, it’s the Shamwow for oil spills. We don’t often say this in Austin, but go Texas Tech!
Some (especially those in the natural gas industry) say that instead of depending on Middle East oil, the US should invest in natural gas, a resource that is being advertised to the public as environment-friendly and associated with less risk. Yesterday’s news stories that came from Johnson County suggest otherwise. One of the operators in Johnson County’s Pecan Plantation died as a result of a pipeline explosion while several others were dangerously burned and taken to nearby hospitals. The pipeline exploded after it was ruptured by the crew that was working on it.
The pipe, owned by Enterprise Products Partners, shot up more than 600 feet skyward for about two hours. The blast shook the windows of homes in Hood County where more than 5,000 people reside only three miles from the plantation.
Texas is familiar with the risk associated with natural gas. According to Star-telegram, more than 20 blowouts have taken place only at Barnett Shale wells, along with, well, all the other pollution they’ve been spewing (and TCEQ has been covering up). In addition Continue Reading »
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, natural gas | Tagged BP clean up, energy regulation, fibertect, flower mound, johnson county, Texas |
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