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Yesterday Texans made their voices heard, defending their property rights

Posted in Air Quality, Global Warming, Texas Legislature, tagged , , , , , on May 26, 2011 |

Yesterday, Texans from across the state made their voices heard in the Texas state house by calling their state senators and asking them to stand up to  industry’s power play to pollute at will. 

On Tuesday night, Rep. Dennis Bonnen (HB 25, Angleton), offered an amendment on SB 875 that would provide industry an affirmative defense against civil suits. This amendment would severely restrict Texans’ ability to protect their property by giving industry immunity from nuisance and trespass action on nearly every type of regulated activity.  On Wednesday afternoon, after an hour-long debate, the House tried to remove the Bonnen amendment from SB 875. The vote was 82-63 to take it off the bill, but the motion failed because, according to the House rules, an amendment on 3rd reading, requires a 2/3rd majority for passage.  So the bill passed on 3rd reading with the Bonnen amendment on it and headed back to the Senate.

Last night, due not by any small amount to all of you who called in expressing your concern about this bill, the Senate refused to concur on the bill, sending it to conference committee.  The senate members of the conference committee (conferees) are:

  • Senator Troy Fraser – Chair, R-Horseshoe Bay – 512-463-0124 
  • Senator Robert Duncan – R-Lubbock – 512-463-0128
  • Senator Kirk Watson – D-Austin – 512-463-0114
  • Senator Mike Jackson – R-La Porte – 512-463-0111
  • Senator Craig Estes – R-Wichita Falls – 512-463-0130 

Later today we expect the House to announce their conferees and we will update this blog with that information.

UPDATE

The house appointed their conferees.  They are:

  • Rep. Kelly Hancock – Chair, R-North Richland Hills – 512-463-0599
  • Rep. Dennis Bonnen – R-Angleton – 512-463-0564
  • Rep. Warren Chisum – R-Pampa – 512-463-0736
  • Rep Craig Eiland – D-Galveston – 512-463-0502
  • Rep Wayne Smith – R-Baytown – 512-463-0733

This all sounds familiar to those who have followed the TCEQ Sunset legislation and industry’s attempt to weaken the public’s ability to contest a permit.    The original bill (SB 875) only limited local governments’ right to bring nuisance or trespass lawsuits for greenhouse gases that negatively impacted their communities, but that was significantly expanded with Bonnen’s amendment, that upon review was so broad that it took away people’s right to protect their property from pollution beyond greenhouse gases.  The Senate conferees have said they are committed to taking the Bonnen amendment off, however this is still a bad bill.   

How can you help? Call your representative and senator’s Capitol office today. Here’s what you need to say:

Vote no on SB 875 as it comes back from the Conference Committee.  Texans believe in private property rights–and they will rightly object to laws passed to restrict these rights and the rights of our local governments to protect our interests.

If you’re not sure who represents you, you can find out here.

Thank you again for your efforts to keep this bad bill from becoming law. 

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Making Connections

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , on May 25, 2011 |

Are the recent tornadoes in Missouri caused by global warming?  In an op-ed published yesterday in the Washington Post, 350.ORG founder Bill McKibben connects the dots between recent natural disasters and climate disruption.

We have reprinted the op-ed below.

Keep Calm and Carry On
By Bill McKibben

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that—together they comprised the most active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn’t mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advised to try and connect them in your mind with, say, the fires now burning across Texas—fires that have burned more of America by this date than any year in our history. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been—the drought is worse than the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if it’s somehow connected.

If you did wonder, you’d have to also wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest—resulting in record flooding across the Mississippi—could somehow be related. And if you did that, then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming. To the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold.

It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself, over and over, the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods—that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these records are happening at once: why we’ve had unprecedented megafloods from Australia to Pakistan in the last year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years. Focus on the immediate casualties, watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over. Look at the anchorman up to the chest of his waders in the rising river.

Because if you asked yourself what it meant that the Amazon has just come through its second hundred-year-drought in the last four years, or that the pine forests across the western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the last decade—well, you might have to ask other questions. Like, should President Obama really just have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal-mining? Should Secretary of State this summer sign a permit allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta? You might have to ask yourself: do we have a bigger problem than four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline?

Better to join with the US House of Representatives, which earlier this spring voted 240-184 to defeat a resolution saying simply “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.” Propose your own physics; ignore physics altogether. Just don’t start asking yourself if last year’s failed grain harvest from the Russian heatwave, and Queensland’s failed grain harvest from its record flood, and France and Germany’s current drought-related crop failures, and the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, and the inability of Midwestern farmers to get corn planted in their sodden fields might somehow be related. Surely the record food prices are just freak outliers, not signs of anything systemic.

It’s very important to stay completely calm.  If you got upset about any of this, you might forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies. If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the US Chamber of Commerce told the EPA in a recent filing: there’s no need to worry because “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re telling themselves in Joplin today.

Bill McKibben is founder of the global climate campaign 350.org, and Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College.

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Simmons’ Cronies

Posted in Global Warming, Nuclear, Radiation, Radioactive Waste, Toxics, tagged , , , , , , , on May 24, 2011 |

All rights reserved by Public Citizen Texas

Infamously dubbed by Dallas Magazine “Dallas’ Most Evil Genius”, socialite and energy tycoon Harold Simmons is no stranger to Texas lobbying.  As this blog previously reported in January, Simmons has contributed $1.12 million from 2001 to September 2010 to Rick Perry significantly increasing his contributions between 6/25/2009 and 9/30/2010 totaling $600,000 in a 15 month period or more than doubling his previous contributions. Now why did Simmons increase his campaign contributions? Perhaps it’s been used to grease the wheels on his  recently passed radioactive waste bill SB 1504 allowing Simmons’ company Waste Control Specialists a monopoly on Texas low-level radiation waste disposal.

Simmons’ money didn’t stop at Perry. According to the Texans for Public Justice, Simmons paid $182, 350 in the 2010 election cycle to 92 members of the House, 94% Republicans and 6%  Democrats. Obviously, all of this is significant because of the recent vote in the House on bill SB 1504. 76% of the members who received Simmons contributions or $138,350 voted with the money, yea, while only 13% or $24, 500 voted nay and 11% or $19,500 abstained from voting. Contrary to a damning report by Public Citizen addressing the dangers of nuclear waste disposal , 84% of the House members who took Simmons’ money voted following the company line while only 16% or 15 members abstained from voting or voted nay.

Simmons granted a rare interview to the Dallas Business Journal in 2006 offering an eerie outlook on his lobbying efforts “It took us six years to get legislation on this passed in Austin, but now we’ve got it all passed. We first had to change the law to where a private company can own a license [to handle radioactive waste], and we did that. Then we got another law passed that said they can only issue one license. Of course, we were the only ones that applied.

Most House Members Who Took Simmons’ Money Voted To Grant Him A Monopoly to Import Nuclear Waste

Simmons BillVote in House No. of Members Percent of Members Total Amount From Simmons Average Amount from Simmons
Yea 108 72% $138,350 $1,281
Nay 36 24% $24,500 $681
Not Voting 6 4% $19,500 $3,250
Totals 150 100% $182,350 $1,216

House Members Taking Simmons’ Money but Bravely Went Against Their Benefactor

House Member Dist. Party Simmons Amount in 2010 Cycle 2nd Reading Vote 5/17 3rd Reading Vote 5/18
Anderson, Charles 56 R $2,000 Absent Absent
Carter, Stefani 102 R $2,000 Nay Nay
Coleman, Garnet 147 D $15,000 Yea Nay
Davis, Sarah 134 R $500 Yea Nay
Dukes, Dawnna 46 D $1,000 Nay Nay
Farrar, Jessica 148 D $500 Absent Nay
Gallego, Pete 74 D $15,000 Nay Nay
Giddings, Helen 109 D $1,000 Nay Nay
*Howard,  Donna 48 D $500 Nay Nay
Hunter, Todd 32 R $2,000 Absent Absent
Issac, Jason A. 45 R $1,000 Nay Nay
Kolkhorst, Lois 13 R $1,000 Nay Nay
*Martinez Fischer, Trey 116 D $1,000 Nay Nay
Reynolds, Ron 27 D $500 Nay Nay
Straus, Joe 121 R $15,000 Not Voting Not Voting
Villarreal, Mike 123 D $1,000 Nay Absent

*Member of House Natural Resources Committee that first approved bill.

Note: If you are interested to see  if your representative voted with the money or even received 2010 campaign contributions from Simmons please visit this link provided by TPJ, Bankroll Call: Correlating Simmons Contributions To Texas House Votes.

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The Fracking Song

Posted in Global Warming, tagged on May 23, 2011 |

A little ditty for your enjoyment by David Holmes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHQu3SeUwUI]

Sorry, it comes with commercials, but was so cute I wanted to share with everyone regardless.

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Hurricanes – Looks like it’s going to be a busy season!

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , on May 20, 2011 |

It looks like we can expect an above average Atlantic hurricane season according to the most recent forecasts by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project (CSUTMP).

Last year we dodged the bullet and no major hurricane made a U.S. landfall (as was the case in the previous four years) even though last year’s hurricane season was one of the busiest on record with 19 named storms, with 12 strengthening into hurricanes.

This year NOAA predicts between 12 to 18 named storms of which six to 10 are likely to be hurricanes, and three to six of those could become major hurricanes, ranging from Category 3-5.

The factors indicating an above average season (11 named storms and six hurricanes, of which 2 are major):

  • In the regions of the Atlantic where storms often develop, sea surface temperatures are up to two degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average.
  • La Nina, is likely to still have an impact.
  • The last sixteen years, ocean and atmospheric conditions have been conducive to more active Atlantic hurricane seasons.

Last month CSUTMP forecast an above average season of 16 named storms of which 9 are expected to turn into hurricanes, with five developing into major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.

Their probabilities for a major hurricane making landfall in the U.S. are:

  • A 72 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coastline (the long-term average probability is 52 percent).
  • A 47 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle west to Brownsville, Texas (the long-term average is 30 percent).
  • A 48 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula (the long-term average is 31 percent).

Forecast updates are expected June 1 and Aug. 3 after which they should know better if La Nina affects are still likely to have an impact and if an El Nino is developing.

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2010 Performance Assessment of South Texas Project Nuclear Power Plant Public Meeting Today

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , on May 19, 2011 |

We wrote about this a while back, but in case you forgot – the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding a meeting in Bay City, Texas, today, Thursday, May 19, with representatives of South Texas Project (STP) Nuclear Operating Co., to discuss the agency’s assessment of safety performance for the South Texas Project nuclear power plant located near Bay City.

The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at:

Wharton County Junior College
Center for Energy Development
4000 Avenue F
Bay City, Texas.

Click here to read our earlier blog for more details.  If you live within the now infamous 50 mile circle around the nuclear plant, you might want to stop in to ask questions about the safety of this plant and what measures have been put in place to protect you and your family in the event of an accident.


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Radioactive Plumbing in Central Texas – will we have a place to dispose of “hot pipes”?

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on May 19, 2011 |

According to a story by KHOU-Channel 11 out of Houston, radiation has contaminated the underground pipes, water tanks, and plumbing that provide drinking water for much of Central Texas and the Hill Country, much to the consternation of  concerned city officials in the region, who tested some pipes with Geiger counters.

Recently, the City of Brady made the discovery when replacing older steel water pipes.  When the city took the pipes to a local recycling scrap yard, the scrap yard turned them away as “too radioactive” to recycle.   Check out the KHOU story at Texas drinking water makes pipes and plumbing radioactive.

Could this be even more radioactive waste that will be traveling through Texas to the WCS dump in Andrews County?  Did the legislature act too hastily in not requiring a study of the capacity of the site before opening it up to the rest of the nation?  Will the WCS site be filled up by the time Central Texas cities need to get rid of old radioactive pipes?

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Half of Texas suffering an “exceptional drought”

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , on May 16, 2011 |

Less than halfway through 2011, this country has already seen three “exceptional” meteorological events just in the past few weeks. These events that pushed the record books to the limit include:

  • A deadly swarm of 244 confirmed tornadoes from April 25-28, (with 112 reports of tornadoes yet to be confirmed) that raked the South and Southeast, with some tornadoes up to a mile wide that remained on the ground for over 100 miles.
  • a slow-moving flood disaster with record flooding or lake levels recorded in 25 locations in 10 states, topping the Great Flood of 1927, and
  • the Southern drought that is creeping toward a new record Just under 6% of the continental US is currently suffering an “exceptional drought”. That’s 185,321 square miles (an area larger than the state of California – 163,695 sq. mi.)

This exceptional drought event has not yet broken the record drought coverage set back on Aug. 20, 2002, but it is getting close.

And while this is not yet the worst drought on record, of note is the fact that just under half (47.5%) of the state of Texas is in this “exceptional” category!  The previous maximum coverage of exceptional drought in Texas was a mere 18.8% on Aug. 25, 2009 (this since aerial coverage of records have been kept starting in January 2000).

Texas has gone from being at least 82% in drought to less than 12% in drought 14 times over the last 11 years! This probably makes Texas one of the most “feast or famine” precipitation states in the nation and we are certainly in a famine phase right now.

Right now there is little expectation that we can expect relief from this current drought in the near future, and that relief may come too late for some. If the past decade is any indication, it also means relief may come in the form of too much, and parts of the state can expect exceptional flooding. Some meteorologists think this may be evidence of the amplification of the water cycle as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), relating to greater evaporation over land and water.

As Texas rides these roller coaster weather shifts, it is clear that the state needs to carefully assess its water resources and that means looking at water usage by conventional power generators (coal and nuclear).

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Radioactive Waste? ‘No’ Vote on SB 1504

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on May 15, 2011 |

Senate Bill 1504 (by Seliger: R-Amarillo and Hinojosa: D-McAllen) the riskiest bill for the environment this session will be heard on the Texas house floor on Tuesday, May 17th.  If passed in its current form, the risks include:

  • Risk that we won’t have enough space for our own waste
  • Risk of an unfunded taxpayer liability
  • Risk from a radioactive rollover
  • Risk that we might contaminate the nation’s largest aquifer, which is nearby

This bill divorces the risk from the profit in the Texas radioactive waste industry putting the liability for a private radioactive waste disposal site on the taxpayers of Texas while putting billions into the pockets of a Texas billionaire.

It’s time to call our legislators- Click here to find out who represents you in the Texas House of Representatives (make sure you select” House” as your District Type”) and give your state legislator a call.  Tell them NO on SB 1504.

A report released April 28th by Public Citizen’s Texas office finds that we could expect a substantial increase in radioactive transportation accidents.  According to WCS’s own transportation study, Texas can expect to have 4,500 trucks rumbling across the state on I-10, I-20, I-30, I-40 and I-27 each year.  That works out to 1,000 trucks per highway, or 3 per day.  The state is simply not prepared to deal with the possibility of a radioactive roll over at an emergency response level or at a financial liability level.  In the event of a transportation accident involving radioactive waste, Texas would have only $500,000 available to cover emergency response, health care and property damage costs, that amount is far too little.

Concern about taxpayer liability is also spelled out in the report which claims that the dump site being constructed in Andrews County does not have adequate capacity to receive waste from outside the state.  It cites a 2000 study by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (see http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/permitting/llrw/entire.pdf for a copy of the study) and an estimate produced by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, both showing the site to be short on capacity for just the Texas and Vermont waste it was originally intended to handle.

We are recommending to members of the Texas Legislature that they vote against SB 1504 and not allow importation until the risks have been addressed and capacity at the site exists.  It has taken 30 years to start construction on a site for our own waste. SB 1504 would likely send us back to the drawing board if we don’t have space for our own waste.

The people of Texas are at risk from a leak at the site, which is located dangerously close to the Ogallala Aquifer and is only 150 feet from groundwater.  If the dump site located in the west Texas county of Andrews were to leak, the cleanup cost could be anywhere from three to 50 times the amount set aside by the site operator, Waste Control Specialists (WCS). Two examples of radioactive leaks – include one in South Texas that garnered a $384 million cleanup bill, and another in New York that is estimated at $5 billion.

You can help!

Call your legislator and tell them to not put the cart before the horse.  Tell them NO on SB 1504.When the legislature voted to let a private facility run our Compact Facility, they told us that this would help prevent it from becoming a national dumping ground, and we believed you.  Now SB 1504 is doing just the opposite.  The legislature should first look at taking our Texas waste and study the capacity of the site before turning us into the national dumping ground. Vote No on SB 1504.

Click here to read a copy of the report. (more…)

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Say No To The Las Brisas “Coal” Plant

Posted in Coal, Energy, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2011 |

Towards the end of January an independent panel of judges, the Office of Public Interest Counsel, and the EPA all recommended that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality deny the proposed permit for the Las Brisas petroleum-coke burning plant based on its multiple deficiencies and clear violations of the Clean Air Act. The Perry-appointed commissioners approved it anyways. According to its permit, Las Brisas will emit 220 pounds of mercury, 100 pounds of lead, 8,096 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 1,767 tons of particulate matter every year.

Communities in Corpus Christi are left with few options: the ultimate authority of the EPA, and the leadership of their elected officials.

“This is my hometown, and I love it,” Rebecca Lyons, a graduating honors student at TAMU Corpus Christi, told Matt Tresaugue of the Houston Chronicle back in January, “But I don’t want to raise a family here because of the health risks…There has to be a better way.”

After hundreds of letters, petitions, and phone calls made to the EPA, Corpus Christi residents are taking their fight to the online world. Join us!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKmMBm0qFKM]

Take Action Online!

Copy and paste this status and video to the EPA’s Facebook pages!

Corpus Christi doesn’t want Las Brisas. Stop the air permit now! http://bit.ly/merA7n

EPA’s Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/X4FYe

EPA Region 6 Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/lBXW9C

Administrator Lisa Jackson’s Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/130rQ6

Are you on Twitter? Tweet with us!

@epaGOV @lisapjackson I want clean air! Stop the Las Brisas air permit in Corpus Christi, TX!
http://bit.ly/merA7n

Ready to go the distance?

Ask your elected officials if they support responsible growth, or Las Brisas. Copy and paste this to their Facebook pages:

I’m a voting constituent, and I don’t want Las Brisas. Do you?
http://bit.ly/merA7n

US House Rep Blake Farenthold: http://on.fb.me/f2XnkP

State Rep Connie Scott: http://on.fb.me/jj0qJv

State Rep Todd Hunter: http://on.fb.me/mpSG5d

Mayor Joe Adame: http://on.fb.me/km137a

State Senator Judith Zaffirini: http://on.fb.me/lbxOW5

State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa does not have a Facebook page.
Send his office an email instead!

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2010 Performance Assessment of South Texas Project Nuclear Power Plant

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on May 11, 2011 |

NRC WILL HOLD A PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS 2010 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

STP Houston and Corpus ChristiMost of us are familiar with the 10 and 50 mile zones around Fukushima, this map shows those same zones around the South Texas nuclear plant located just 76 miles outside of Houston.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet in Bay City, Texas, on Thursday, May 19, with representatives of South Texas Project (STP) Nuclear Operating Co., to discuss the agency’s assessment of safety performance for the South Texas Project nuclear power plant located near Bay City.

The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Wharton County Junior College (Center for Energy Development) 4000 Avenue F, Bay City, Texas.

In addition to the performance assessment, the NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the safety performance of the South Texas (Nuclear) Project and the NRC’s role in ensuring safe plant operation.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for NRC to discuss their annual assessment of the plant with the company, local officials and the public.   NRC will answer any questions attendees may have about their oversight.

A letter sent from the NRC Region IV office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during 2010 and will serve as the basis for discussion. It is available on the NRC website – click here to read the letter.

In light of public concerns that have emerged regarding the safety of nuclear plants here in the U.S. in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster at Fukushima, this public meeting provides an excellent opportunity for citizens living 10, 50, or even 150 miles away to find out what measures are in place at South Texas Project to protect it’s neighbors.

Related Articles

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TCEQ Sunset bill moving forward, looking better

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on May 4, 2011 |

Good news! Yesterday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee took important steps toward getting the TCEQ Sunset bill back on track. They did this by doing two things. First, the bill’s Senate sponsor, Senator Huffman, offered the original bill language as the committee substitute for HB 2694.

Making this substitution means that the Senate version doesn’t have the modifications made by the House–including the Chisum amendments that changed the contested case hearing process.

Second, the set of amendments offered at the hearing did not include the Chisum amendments. What this means is that the Senate will not be able to put those amendments on the bill when it comes to the Senate floor. (This is a technicality of the Senate rules.)

Taken together,  Senate Natural Resources set the Senate up to pass a “clean” version of the TCEQ sunset bill.

This is a major accomplishment that would not have been possible without the calls, email and personal communication from Texans all over the state.

On behalf of everyone working on this legislation in the Capitol and around the state, we would like to thank you for your efforts on this bill.  Honestly, there were a couple of industry lobbyists who looked pretty surprised and downtrodden at the end of the hearing. 

However, we are far from being out of the woods on this bill–and on the attack on contested case hearings.

Once HB 2694 gets through the Senate, it will go to conference committee where the difference between the House and Senate versions of the bill will be worked out, you got it, behind closed doors.

That’s one reason to keep up the pressure on the senators–to let them know in no uncertain terms that we will not stand for the House version of the bill–and that we expect them to stand up for the clean bill.

The attack on contested case hearings continues on the House side in the two stand alone bills the amendments came from–HB 3037 and HB 3251. If and when these bills are scheduled to come to the House floor, we will alert you again to ask for your help.

Thanks in advance for any work you can do on these two bills now–calling your representative today or tomorrow would be a great way to start building awareness that Texans are against these two bills because they attack our right to protect our property.

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Public Citizen asks to depose Chairman and former Executive Director of the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , on April 17, 2011 |

In the opening salvo of a long-anticipated legal battle over a rule that would leave Texas open to radioactive waste from all over the country traveling along our highways to a West Texas dumpsite, Public Citizen’s Texas office filed a petition in Travis County District Court  on Thursday. 

The petition alleges many significant flaws in the process by which these rules were adopted and seeks to depose officials to find  out whether these were a series of inept mistakes, or part of an effort to suppress  citizens’ rights to comment on expanded importation of dangerous radioactive waste.

Public Citizen’s petition does not state any specific wrongdoing. Instead, it requests depositions be scheduled to  investigate “potential claims concerning the Commission’s recent, flawed rule-making.”

During the 2010 holiday season Public Citizen and SEED tangled with aspiring radioactive waste dump company Waste Control Specialists (WCS)and the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission (Compact Commission) over a radioactive waste rulemaking that Public Citizen claims was fraught with irregularities.

The petition alleges that:

  • The commission published the wrong email address for comments
  • The over 6,000 comments received weren’t properly reviewed, evaluated and responded to,
  • The comments were undercounted,   
  • The commission failed to legally find that there is enough excess capacity  to allow importation from other states
  • The commission has failed to analyze the risk of a transportation accident or the risk of a terrorist capturing  some of these waste

The Compact Commission began a public comment period the day after Thanksgiving and ended it the day after Christmas, putting the public at a serious disadvantage.  They then claimed to have adequately responded to the over six thousand comments that poured in toward the end of the 30 day comment period in only a matter of days without any technical or legal staff to analyze those comments. 

Based on existing evidence it seems most likely that [Compact Commission] Chairman Michael Ford attempted to read and respond to over six thousand public comments and the numerous technically complex filings from consumer organizations, law firms, and elected officials between Christmas and New Years while sitting around his mother-in-law’s kitchen table.  That would meaning reading three comments a minute – a herculean and, frankly, impossible task.  This is hardly the kind of reasoned analysis envisioned inTexaslaw.

Despite the fact that over six thousand Texans took time out over the holidays to write letters opposing the idea of importing radioactive waste from all over the country to Texas, the Compact Commission voted 6-2 in favor of the plan.  The vote took place on January 4th, just two days before the inauguration of Vermont’s governor elect, who had publicly stated during his campaign that he intended to appoint two new Vermont members to the Commission.  The Compact Commission is composed of six members fromTexas and two members fromVermont.

The petition also alleges that the Compact Commission’s importation rule would result in a substantial increase the number of trucks carrying radioactive waste along Texas highways, into the thousands according to WCS’s own transportation study submitted when they applied for their license.  This dangerous waste would be vulnerable to accidents and roll-overs as well as terrorist attacks.

During a December 2010 legal challenge to the proceeding, federal judge Sam Sparks expressed concern over the way public comments were handled.  If granted, the petition would provide a low-cost means to determine whether there were violations of state and federal laws by the Compact Commission.  Further action by the state of Texasor Vermont and Public Citizen could hinge on what is revealed in the depositions of key decision-makers involved in the rule-making process, including Michael Ford, the Compact Commission’s chairman, and the Commission’s former executive director who left her post before the vote.

If the commission is inept, that should heighten everyone’s concern about whether they are competent to  regulate radioactive  waste. If they are actively trying to downplay the extent of opposition to importation, it raises serious questions about their commitment to following Texas open meeting and open records laws.

A hearing on the petition has been scheduled for May 9th at 2:30 PM.

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Radioactive Waste Could Be Rumbling Through Your Town Unless State Legislators Close Loopholes in SB 1504

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on April 14, 2011 |

18-Wheeler Accident Spills Radioactive Material in Pineville, LA

With the passage of SB 1504 in the Texas Senate, radioactive waste could soon be barreling down Texas highways and through our neighborhoods by way of Interstate 10 through Houston, San Antonio and El Paso; I-20 and I-30 though Dallas and Forth Worth, Midland and Odessa ; and I-27 though Lubbock and Amarillo. 

The greatest risk we face is having an accident with vehicles containing waste.  Cleanup estimates range from $100 to a billion dollars or more according to the U.S. Department of Energy, but the state of Texas has set aside only $500,000.  Taxpayers would pay the rest.

 And what if an accident happens next to a school, playground or hospital?  Don’t we want to make sure that our local emergency responders have the training and equipment needed to handle an accident where a truck is leaking radioactive waste?

 Thanks to Senator Seliger’s leadership, there have been some important protections added in, but a number of loopholes remain that dramatically increases the risk and liability assumed by Texas taxpayers.  There is still a chance to close these loopholes.  This bill goes to the Texas House floor next week and Texans should ask their legislators to make sure that there is an immediate thorough analysis of transportation risks, costs of cleaning up contamination from accidents or leaks, and waste capacity at the site.

 As the Japanese nuclear disaster has taught us, cleaning up after radioactive waste can be a costly and dangerous process.  We urge the house to make sure we have protective measures in place before an accident.

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Robert Redford – Fighting Goliath

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , on April 12, 2011 |

Robert Redford, who has been a major figure in film in this country since the 60s (as an actor, director, and producer), is once again in the limelight for the release of his new film The Conspirator.  But as much of note in Mr. Redford’s life is his lifelong commitment to positive social and environmental change through the arts, education and civil discourse.  We’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Mr. Redford’s contribution to clean air in Texas through his support of a documentary film about the Texas coal wars.

[vimeo 22308397]

Released in 2008, narrated by Robert Redford and co-produced by The Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve and Alpheus Media, Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars, follows the story of ordinary Texans – mayors, ranchers, farmers, CEOs, community groups, legislators, and lawyers – that came together to oppose the construction of 19 conventional coal-fired power plants that were slated to be built in Eastern and Central Texas and that were being fast-tracked by the Governor.  Click here to watch the entire documentary.

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