Texas senators debate how to comply with U.S. clean air standards
Copyright 2000, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Monday, March 27, 2000
By Neil Strassman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
The U.S. government could withhold as much as $1 billion in highway funds if the Metroplex and Houston do not have adequate plans to clean the air, Texas senators were told March 21.
Environmental and state transportation officials, testifying at a hearing on air quality before the Senate Natural Resources and State Affairs committees, said that the state's highway funds are safe and that the plan to cut smog will be delivered on time.
But at the six-hour hearing, senators had a tough time grasping how not building roads would reduce pollution, particularly because cars cause 50 percent of it.
"Somebody's got to add some common sense to this deal," said Sen. Ken Armbrister, R-Lake Jackson, who grilled Carl Edlund, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional planning and permitting director.
"Doublespeak," he muttered after Edlund explained the federal law, the 1990 Clean Air Act, and recent court decisions that allow the EPA to impound highway funds if a region with a serious smog problem does not have an approved air quality plan.
The clean air plan for North Texas must be presented to the EPA by the end of April. The plan for Houston, the smoggiest city in the nation, must be submitted by year's end.
"We will be worse off by the 2007 deadline than we are today unless we implement strategies to curb ozone," said Jeff Saitas, executive director of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the state's environmental agency.
"We've got to have clean air, power for people in the summertime and roads that get people from one place to another," he said.
Charles Heald, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, said his agency "has no intention of letting any funds escape from Texas."
But the Metroplex plan barely squeezes under the federal health limit for ozone. Under attack from businesses and communities that don't want to participate, the plan may not be rigorous enough to pass muster.
Some environmental groups said the threat of losing highway dollars finally got Texas' attention.
"They finally got serious when federal highway funds would be pulled and now there are serious plans to improve the air," said Jim Marston, Austin executive director of Environmental Defense, a national environmental advocacy group.
"Take away the sanction and they could revert to doing nothing," said Marston, who did not attend the hearing.
The task of cutting smog in Houston is so tough that state officials have even considered banning driving on a rotating basis every fourth or fifth day.
Alan Clark, a transportation official from the Houston/Galveston Area Council, told the senators that a no-drive day is still on the list of possibilities for Houston.
"The focus of our effort should be on technology and cleaner fuels and engines, not on changing behavior," Clark said.