Texas looks to motorists to cover industry's pollution bill

Houston's biggest sources of smog-forming pollution may avoid tens of millions of dollars in penalties for the region's failure to achieve federal clean-air goals.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is asking the federal government for permission to waive fines for the region's 260 chemical plants, oil refineries and other large facilities.

The commission argues that it should not have to collect those fines because it already is raising money for smog-fighting programs through vehicle inspection fees and sales taxes for diesel equipment, among other revenue sources.

The commission does not plan to increase fees and taxes for motorists and equipment operators, but is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to consider those fees a substitute for industry fines.

For years, the fees and taxes have funded a program that helps cover the cost of replacing or retrofitting dirty, old vehicles and equipment, such as locomotives, haul trucks and tugboats. The program has helped to improve air quality in the state's smoggiest cities.

If federal regulators do not approve the plan, the commission estimates the industry faces as much as $90 million a year in penalties for the eight-county Houston region's inability to meet smog limits set by the Carter administration. The Clean Air Act requires the state to collect fines from the largest polluters in the area until the standard is achieved.

Environmentalists sharply criticized the state's proposal, saying it will not raise new money to further reduce smog in Houston, as intended under federal law.

The commission "is basically doing everything it can not to collect" fines from industry, said Elena Craft, a Texas-based health scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund. "That was the incentive for them to reduce emissions because it would be cheaper than paying penalties."

Terry Clawson, a commission spokesman, said the penalties would result only in higher costs to consumers without any environmental benefit. The fees already collected from motorists and heavy equipment operators are intended to help reduce emissions in Houston, and federal regulators previously approved the use of such funds to offset fines in California, he said.

Fees for 260 plants

Clawson said the commission considers it "more desirable" for companies to spend money on "actual environmental improvements" at their facilities than on fines, although the proposal would not require them to install any new pollution controls. If the fees and taxes do not generate enough money to offset the fines, then industry would pay the difference, he said.

The commission estimates the penalty, which is based on the amount of smog-forming emissions, could be as high as $7.4 million for a single site. The average fee could be between $266,000 and $347,000 for about 260 plants in Houston.

Smog is created when sunlight cooks a mixture of chemicals - volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides - emitted mostly by tailpipes and smokestacks. Chronic exposure to ozone, the main ingredient in smog, can cause asthma attacks, chest pain and premature death.

In the Houston area, cars, trucks, trains and other mobile sources are responsible for more than half the nitrogen oxides, while refiners, chemical makers and other large facilities account for 40 percent. The industrial plants, meanwhile, emit nearly twice as many tons of volatile organic compounds each year as vehicles.

2007 deadline not met

Jed Anderson, a Houston-based attorney who represents industry in regulatory matters, said the commission's proposal is a fairer distribution of the burden because cars and trucks produce so much smog-forming emissions. Even then, he said Houston should not have to pay at all, saying the amount of pollution that blows into Texas from other countries is enough to push the region out of compliance for ozone.

Houston had a 2007 deadline to comply with the federal limits, but fell short despite significant improvements in air quality.

The Carter-era smog standard requires that air contain less than 125 parts per billion of ozone for any one hour.

The Environmental Protection Agency set a tighter limit in 1997 by altering how it measures ozone, from marking the peak level reached in any one hour to averaging the level over eight hours. The change reflected research showing that long-term exposure to low smog levels is a greater threat than brief exposure to high amounts.

Houston has lowered its one-hour ozone levels from 220 parts per billion in 1991 to 125 ppb last year. The EPA has not recommended additional pollution controls because of the rate of the region's progress.

Still, the Environmental Defense Fund's Craft said the fines, which would be collected by and remain in the state, could be used to install more air quality monitors at the fence lines of industrial plants. That would help pinpoint the source of emissions during spikes in ozone levels, she said.

matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

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