Floor Pass

Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.

Some lawmakers expressed worry today that a plan to overhaul the Texas Water Development Board and put the agency in charge of overseeing a $2 billion water infrastructure fund could create another slush fund plagued by cronyism.

Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay), a close ally of Gov. Perry, has proposed legislation that would replace the part-time six-member water board with three full-time members, appointed by the governor.

At a hearing today, Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) voiced apprehension at the idea.

“I’m hoping that we’re heading down the right track here,” Lucio said.

Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) brought up the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, the $3 billion grant-making institute authorized by the Legislature in 2007. CPRIT is at the center of a public corruption investigation after it came to light that several grants had improperly awarded to companies.

“It’s a large sum of money,” Whitmire said, according to the Associated Press. “How do we put the checks and balances — the safeguards, Troy, so that we don’t see the abuses that we witnessed with the cancer fund?”

Heather Harward, executive director of H2O4TEXAS, a business group that stands to gain from a water bank, tried to reassure lawmakers that the state will get a lot of bang for their buck.

Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, said it’s critical that the state implements a balanced solution between water projects and water conservation. Fraser’s Senate Bill 4 would direct that no less than 10 percent of the funding go toward water conservation and another 10 percent go to rural areas. However, that’s less than the House proposal and far below what’s recommended by some conservation groups.

“Our fear is that this money is not going to go towards conservation,” Metzger said. “We’d like to see half of the funding put aside for conservation. We’d also like to see education included in this funding.”

Before moving further in the process, Lucio said he wants questions answered like what types of projects would be funded and which ones would be subject to appropriations.

“I’m very supportive of Chairman Fraser and what he’s been trying to do, but I want to know…” Lucio trailed off.

Olivia Messer

Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) speaks at a Planned Parenthood Rally.

In stark contrast to the Planned Parenthood bashing at Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee hearing, hundreds rallied at the Capitol Thursday morning to support the non-profit. Dressed in pink, women held signs that read “Texas Needs Planned Parenthood,” and a three-minute long flash mob danced to Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls).”

Stephanie March, known for her role on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” spoke at the rally. “I’m tired of Texas being crazy,” March said. “We can do better. And I’m tired of Texas thwarting the health of its own citizenry, and I’m tired of Texas playing politics with women’s lives. I want Texas exceptionalism back, the kind that recognizes the value of its exceptional ladies.”

“This is about saving the lives of the hundreds of thousands of women who use Planned Parenthood,” March said.

Several lawmakers emphasized the importance of women’s health funding, but Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) was one of the few who mentioned specific efforts at the Capitol. She described House Bill 2819, which she filed on Thursday morning—it would remove the abortion affiliate ban from the Women’s Health Program, allowing providers like Planned Parenthood to again receive state funding, according to the Texas Tribune. (In 2011, the Texas Legislature specifically targeted Planned Parenthood, changing the criteria by which women’s health providers could qualify for federal funding. The feds balked and Texas lost $30 million.)

At the rally, Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) donned a bright pink scarf and a Planned Parenthood button as she spoke about the difference the organization made in her life.

“I had a child when I was very young, and I was a single mother struggling to try to make my way into an education arena, starting at community college and, fortunately, making my way from there to TCU and then Harvard Law School,” she said.

“None of that would have been possible had I not been able to exercise decision-making about my own family planning in the future,” she continued. “Planned Parenthood—the clinic on Henderson Avenue in Fort Worth—for 4 to 5 years, was my only health care. … Think about the women in Texas today who have relied so much on Planned Parenthood to provide those same services, women who we know now do not have that access.”

“The cuts to family planning last session—about $72 million in cuts—in addition to the war against the women’s health program because Planned Parenthood was a part of it, has resulted in what the [Legislative Budget Board] estimates will be a loss to about 160,000 women in Texas, of the only health care that they have.”

Davis also referred to the sonogram law passed in the 2011 legislative session. “We know that women who are now going through the most difficult decision of their lives in exercising their right to an abortion, now do so, unfortunately, with incredible shame, with incredible pain, because of an intrusion in the doctor-patient relationship that became part of Texas law last session.” (Texas requires that a woman seeking an abortion undergo an ultrasound, hear her baby described to her and see a sonogram or listen to the baby’s heartbeat… all before waiting another 24 hours to receive the procedure.)

Rep. Chris Turner (D-Arlington) spoke of family planning in the upcoming budget debates. “A government budget is a lot more than just about dollars and cents,” he said. “It is an expression of values as a state and as a government. If we have a budget that cuts off access to basic, life-saving health care services to hundreds of thousands of women in our state, that is a very poor expression of our values.”

Jen Reel

Mary Kelleher’s Fort Worth home is 65 feet from an off-the-books gas pipeline.

Is Texas headed for more pipeline accidents? The state agency charged with overseeing pipeline safety is dangerously underfunded.

Yesterday, the head of the pipeline safety division at the Texas Railroad Commission (which, no, doesn’t have anything to do with railroads but is the chief regulator for intrastate pipelines in the state) told a House committee that she needs twice as many inspectors to do her job. The Railroad Commission oversees 168,000 miles of pipeline—enough to encircle the Earth almost seven times­, but has just 33 inspectors. That’s about 5,000 miles of pipeline per regulator.

That’s partly due to Texas’ fracking boom, which has wrought a vast new network of pipelines to carry oil and gas to market. Many of them are located in populated areas near homes, businesses and schools. Citizens and cities have little say over where the pipelines are sited and oversight can be almost comically lacking.

Polly McDonald, the agency’s pipeline safety division director, said the understaffing problem had led to a system of triage. The agency focuses on the segments of pipeline that pose the greatest risk of an explosion, leak or spill.

“Do we have enough inspectors to do what we need to do?,” asked state Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston).

McDonald replied: “No, we don’t.”

The cost to fully staff her division with another 35 inspectors, McDonald said, would be $2 million to $3 million.

Still, lawmakers peppered her with questions about emerging problems—cyberattacks on pipeline infrastructure, pipelines carrying tar sands from Canada and the agency’s adjustments following high-profile tragedies like the San Bruno, California, natural gas explosion that killed eight people in 2010 and the Enbridge pipeline leak in Michigan that poisoned a watershed. (Oddly, there was little mention of the deadly pipeline accidents that have struck Texas in the past few years.)

McDonald said the Railroad Commission would be hard-pressed to deal with those issues.

Asked about the agency’s tracking how operators were addressing cybersecurity threats, McDonald said, “We certainly could, but I’m not sure that’s in our staffing range at the moment, frankly.”

The hearing also highlighted several vulnerabilities in pipeline oversight.

One problem area, McDonald said, is “control-room error.” In both the San Bruno and Michigan accidents, individuals had failed to follow safety protocols and respond appropriately to warning signs that something had gone wrong. Both incidents have been “eye-opening” for the industry.

“A better understanding [is] needed of how humans interface with these machines,” McDonald said, “which can be really useful but can also malfunction.”

The Railroad Commission will be conducting a special audit on operators’ control room plans.

Although pipeline operators are required to hold meetings with local emergency responders to plan for leaks and accidents, local responders often fail to show up. The companies sometimes have to offer free meals.

“They leave the written information and hope that someone reads it,” McDonald said.