Texas Clean Air Matters

Houston teens take their fight for clean air to Washington, D.C.

By / Published: July 23, 2019

Houston-area students from EDF’s Environmental Youth Council visited Washington, D.C., to learn about the ways that the policies that affect them and their families are negotiated.

A trip from Houston to Washington, D.C., was the exclamation point at the end of the first year of EDF’s Environmental Youth Council program.

Through the program, students attending Pasadena Memorial High School, Galena Park High School and Raul Yzaguirre School for Success — all located on the east side of Houston near the heavy industry located up and down the busy Houston Ship Channel — have committed to learning about environmental health, air quality and public policy and advocacy.

EDF was excited to take this first cohort of students to the nation’s capital to explore the city, learn more about organizations working on environmental issues and gain a better understanding of how legislative representatives create the policies that impact their lives.

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Houston high school students create videos to tell air pollution stories

By / Published: May 29, 2019

Galena Park High School student Evelyn Garcia’s video won first place in the 2019 “Houston Teens Care About Clean Air” Video Contest.

Evelyn Garcia has had asthma for as long as she can remember. And she has always been aware of the effect the problematic air quality near her Pasadena, Texas, home has on her and others who have grown up in the area.

The March 2019 fires at Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) in Deer Park caused her school, Galena Park High School, to close for three days. So when Evelyn, 17 and a junior, saw the poster for the third annual “Houston Teens Care About Clean Air” Video Contest at her school, she knew she had to participate.

“Ever since I was young, I have cared about having clean air in my community,” Evelyn said. “The level of contamination affected me health-wise, and I think I had the credibility to talk about it in my video.”

EDF challenged students participating in its Environmental Youth Council program to create three-minute videos using their personal stories to educate others about air pollution and its impact on the body. Out of 23 submissions, Evelyn’s video, “Inhaling Hope,” won first place.

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What to watch as the Texas Legislature takes up climate, energy, water and more

By / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: April 11, 2019

We’re past the midpoint of the Texas legislative session and the bill filing deadline is behind us. Because the legislature only meets for five months every other year, there’s a lot to accomplish in a short span.

Now, as things pick up steam we’ll see which bills move forward and which don’t. A bill needs to be heard in committee to have any chance of passing (here’s a helpful primer on the legislative process), and less than a month remains until the House starts reporting bills out of committee. The clock is ticking.

Although most bills won’t make it across the finish line, here are a few related to climate, energy and water that warrant a closer look.

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Posted in Air Pollution, Climate Change, Drought, Energy-Water Nexus, Legislation, Methane, Natural gas, Oil, Renewable Energy, Solar / Tagged , , , , , | Comments are closed

Texas Public Utility Commission defends competitive markets, customer interests

By / Bio / Published: March 5, 2019

The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) might not be a household name, but electricity customers across Texas have plenty of reason to be thankful for its latest actions.

Recently, the PUC has made some key decisions to protect Texas’ competitive electricity markets and make sure all Texans have access to affordable and clean electric energy.

As we move toward the hot summer months and ERCOT projects record demand and potential grid alerts, these policy moves will hopefully be paired with further support of tools like distributed energy resources to ensure a reliable and resilient grid.

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Posted in Air Pollution, Demand Response, ERCOT, Utilities / Tagged | Comments are closed

Here’s how a Houston neighborhood is taking action after decades of environment injustice

By / Bio / Published: January 30, 2019

Environmental Defense Fund has launched a project with Houston-based nonprofit Achieving Community Tasks Successfully (ACTS) and Texas Southern University to bring community-led air monitoring to a neighborhood surrounded by several pollution sources.

Pleasantville, located on Houston’s east side, was established in 1948 as the first planned community for African-Americans in the city. Today, however, the Houston Ship Channel and one of the busiest stretches of Interstate 610, as well as a sprawling brewery, warehouses, metal recyclers and salvage yards, push hard against the neighborhood, producing significant concerns about environmental justice and human health.

Despite these concerns, Texas regulators have not placed an air monitor in Pleasantville to document the impacts of the pollution sources. In fact, the state’s closest monitor is about two miles away, meaning that the community’s residents are unaware of which pollutants are in the air they are breathing. As we know from our work in Oakland, a monitor this far away may miss important local pollution sources – and likely does not accurately reflect their exposures to harmful chemicals. Read More »

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It’s not too late to improve Texas plan for VW money. Here’s how.

By / Bio / Published: December 12, 2018

Texas recently put forth a spending plan for its $209 million share of the settlement from VW’s emissions-cheating scheme, with the goals of reducing smog-forming emissions and protecting people’s health through the repower or replacement of the biggest polluters on the road.

Yet the plan’s author, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, ignored some of the oldest, dirtiest engines and equipment. That is a glaring omission because we are learning that these pollution sources—marine tugboats and switcher locomotives that operate at railyards—stay in service for much longer than previously thought. TCEQ’s plan also highlighted that the agency has failed to leverage federal funding for emissions reduction projects for several years.

The good news is that TCEQ can remedy both of these missed opportunities. Read More »

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