Greening Austin Daily

State and Federal Agencies Close to Compromise on Texas’ Air Pollution Permitting Program

16th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Statesman had an article yesterday stating that TCEQ and the EPA were meeting yesterday for negotiations over Texas’ air pollution permit program.  Here is an excerpt:

In a meeting scheduled for this afternoon at the North Austin headquarters of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the two sides will present a draft compromise that carves out a way for refineries and large manufacturing facilities to voluntarily give up broad permits issued to them by the state for potentially more stringent permits acceptable to federal authorities…

At issue has been whether industrial plants that had been operating under broad, so-called flexible permits awarded years ago by the state ought to be subjected to more precise, stringent permits. The flexible permits set facility-wide emissions limits, leaving regulators in the dark about how many gases particular parts of the plant are belching into the air.

Hopefully we will know later today the results of the negotiations.