The Trial of Bryan Shaw

The Senate Nominations Committee is usually a glad-handing snoozefest. Not so yesterday. Bryan Shaw, Gov. Perry’s most recent appointment to the three-member Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, was grilled for hours by Sens. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, and Kirk Watson, D-Austin, on a wide range of topics. Shaw is one in a succession of Perry appointees who have maintained a near-perfect record of siding with polluters in high-profile cases.

The two senators are both lawyers and no fans of TCEQ; they turned the screws pretty tight on Shaw’s buzzcut head. Though Shaw was unfailingly polite throughout the process his answers were frustratingly opaque, even Palin-esque, in their evasiveness.

Watson made a show out of getting Shaw to admit that the environmental agency hasn’t done anything to address climate change, much less prepare for federal regulation of greenhouse gases. After asking the question 10 different ways, Watson finally pinned him.

“Is it safe to say the agency has taken no action other than just watching?” Watson asked.

“We have taken no formal action,” Shaw replied.

Later, Watson blasted Shaw for his belief—contrary to all available scientific evidence—that the jury is still out on human-induced climate change.

Watson: “Just so that we can get it on the record: You don’t believe that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity has contributed to climate change, do you?”

Shaw: “I don’t believe the science is fully settled. I know that humans are emitting greenhouse gases.”

But what about the fact that there is a virtual consensus among scientists that climate change is primarily driven by human activity, Watson asked? I dare you to find the logic in Shaw’s reply.

Shaw: “I don’t believe it’s fully vetted. Fortunately or unfortunately having a consensus of a group of scientists doesn’t make that fully settled. There are still certainly those renowned scientists that still express skepticism and moreover I think that it warrants a critical process of looking forward because the implications of moving forward based on the assumption that man-made contribution is the primary driver of climate change may close windows of opportunity for us with regard to the environmental good that we’re trying to achieve.”

Got that?

But anyway, who are these renowned scientists skeptical of climate change? Shaw doesn’t provide any names; he just says “there are others” outside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world authority on climate change, who disagree with the body’s findings.

In a final flourish, Watson suggested that Shaw check with his colleagues in the department of atmospheric science at Texas A&M—where Shaw teaches agricultural air quality—who have signed on to the IPCC findings. “All you have to do is go to the A&M Web site,” Watson said. “It’s pretty easy to find that they’re part of that consensus.”

Watson also took Shaw to task for voting last week, along with TCEQ Chairman Buddy Garcia, to deny citizens a hearing on the public health impacts of TXI’s cement kiln in Midlothian, a major polluter of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Sen. Shapleigh focused on the case of Asarco, the now-bankrupt company that in February abandoned plans to re-open its notorious El Paso smelter. From the outset, it was clear that Shapleigh intended to put Shaw on trial. He reminded Shaw that he was under oath and that the proceedings were being recorded.

For over a year, Shapleigh has been battling TCEQ over confidential records held by the agency. The documents, Shapleigh contends, would flesh out the communication between Asarco representatives and TCEQ higher-ups during the company’s contested permit-renewal process. Generally, such ex parte contacts are prohibited by the law, but attorney time sheets revealed during Asarco’s bankruptcy revealed extensive contact between ASARCO attorneys and lobbyists and TCEQ commissioners. A Travis County district judge is expected to rule soon on a lawsuit Shapleigh filed against TCEQ demanding the release of the internal TCEQ records.

At the hearing yesterday, Shapleigh read from the attorney billing sheets, asking Shaw in each instance if he had been the commissioner meeting with ASARCO. Shaw said that he had never spoken with any ASARCO representative. “I would not take that risk because of fear of criminal prosecution,” Shaw said.

Was Shaw basically admitting that a TCEQ commissioner—believed to be Chairman Buddy Garcia—had put himself into criminal jeopardy?

Shaw backpedaled, saying that he didn’t mean to indicate that he thought the meetings violated any rules or laws. Shapleigh retorted that the tape recording wouldn’t lie.

In the end, no new revelations on the ASARCO controversy emerged from Shapleigh’s line of questioning. But as a political inquisition the hearing was quite satisfying.