EPA To Take Over Texas’ Air Permitting For Major Refineries and Power Plants

Agency Sets Timeline for Cleaning Up Largest Sources of Global Warming Pollution

AUSTIN—After a year of record high temperatures and extreme weather, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce today that it will take over management of air permitting from Texas over the state’s failure to comply with the new rules. EPA also announced its timeline for developing nationwide limits on global warming pollution from power plants, the largest single source of global warming pollution.

“Global warming poses perhaps the greatest threat to Texas’ environment and our public health, and we need to clean up the oldest and dirtiest power plants to begin to solve the problem,” said Luke Metzger, Director of Environment Texas.  “The law is clear and EPA was left with no other choice but to take over permitting from Texas. The sooner we get started cleaning up the largest sources of pollution and transitioning to cleaner energy sources, the better chance we’ll give future generations to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.” 

Left unchecked, global warming could bring to Texas everything from heat related deaths to drought.  And 2010 saw many events—from deadly heat waves in Russia and devastating floods in Pakistan, to record high summer temperatures along the east coast of the United States—that are consistent with scientist’s predictions of what we’ll see more of as the planet warms.  A recent Environment Texas report documented the latest science linking extreme weather with global warming, and highlighted some of the damage caused by recent extreme weather events across the United States. 

For years, coal-fired power plants have been allowed to emit unlimited amounts of global warming pollution into our air, which is a major reason why coal-fired power plants are currently the largest single source of global warming pollution nationwide. To help correct this, the EPA announced today that it would propose an initial New Source Performance Standard for global warming pollution from power plants by July 2011 and issue a final rule by May 2012.  EPA will issue a draft standard for refineries by December 2011 and a final standard by November 2012.

Because Texas has refused to implement new standards for global warming pollution, EPA is also expected to announce today that it will take over management of air permitting for 167 facilities in the state. The action follows a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to deny a request by Texas to block the new standards. 

Environment Texas is calling on elected officials in Washington, DC and Austin to clean up coal-fired power plants and other sources of global warming pollution, and repower our economy with clean, renewable energy like wind and solar power.      

“Beyond cleaning up the largest sources of pollution, it’s high time we harnessed the power of the sun that shines and the wind that blows through Texas for a cleaner, healthier future,” said Metzger. “Today’s announcement outlined the ‘when’ of EPA’s plans to develop its standards for power plants, but now we’ll need to ensure that EPA gets the ‘what’ right and sets the strongest possible standards.”