Photo by Jack Price, Borderzine.com
We all know that Texas as a state has taken no real action to reduce air pollution from the oil and gas field - at least compared to other states. While states like New Mexico are passing rules to reduce flaring and lower methane emissions, our own state - the number one producer of oil and gas - largely ignores the problems. In fact, during the recently concluded legislative session, while over a dozen pieces of legislation were filed to reduce flaring and oil and gas emissions, only two even received a legislative hearing - HB 896 and HB 897 by Ron Reynolds -- and neither got even a vote to get out of committee.
However, one pretty good thing and one really good thing happened recently. First, after years of delay, TCEQ finally adopted some modest rules on controlling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in non-attainment areas, particularly surrounding Dallas and Houston. Are the rules strong enough? No, they ignore methane, and we and others argued they should have applied statewide. Are they an improvement from the status quo? Yes. But expanding this rule statewide would be especially important as we push for the TCEQ to accept EPA’s nonattainment designation for El Paso.
While we told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the El Paso airshed is violating health-based ozone (ground-level smog) standards, and the newer version of the EPA (the one in place since January) seems to agree. Recently, the EPA suggested that El Paso County is a non-attainment area for ozone and they have given the public -- and TCEQ - until July 14th to either agree with that assessment or disagree. The change would be an important victory for the public since it would allow more funding from TCEQ for incentives for cleaner vehicles and air quality planning, subject any large industrial permits to more controls, and require that expansions or new facilities find corresponding reductions of pollutants in other areas.
Sierra Club is fighting expansion of El Paso Electric’s Newman Gas Plant, declaring El Paso non-attainment as proposed would give another tool to the community to fight expansion of gas infrastructure in El Paso. To let your views be known to the EPA through the Rio Grande Chapter’s action alert, take action here! To contact the EPA directly and see what others are saying see here.
Second, and perhaps most importantly, Congress actually acted in a bipartisan fashion, and this week, following action in the Senate, the House of Representatives passed a Congressional Review Act to restore rules on methane enacted under President Obama that had been rolled back by Trump. See Sierra Club’s press release here. Once President Biden signs the legislation, EPA will require all oil and gas wells and associated equipment built since April of 2015 to meet the commonsense methane rules. We will watch to make sure TCEQ complies and restores the requirements.
We also expect Biden to begin a much larger rulemaking on further reductions on methane, including older equipment, later this year. Stay tuned!