How Texas Commission On Environmental Quality Helps Polluters Evade Federal Law
Environmental lawyers say the state watchdog agency lets polluters escape regulation through legal loopholes.
Since 1954
Martha Pskowski covers climate change and the environment in Texas for Inside Climate News. She previously was an environmental reporter at the El Paso Times. She began her career as a freelance journalist in Mexico, reporting for outlets including The Guardian and Yale E360. Martha grew up in Maryland and graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in Environmental Studies. She holds a master's degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies from New York University and is a former Fulbright research fellow in Mexico.
Environmental lawyers say the state watchdog agency lets polluters escape regulation through legal loopholes.
Pollution from the energy sector has impacted soil, contaminated water resources and killed wildlife while the state resists new regulations.
Advocates say the approval process is more of a "rubber stamp" for oil and gas companies to keep polluting indefinitely.
After decades of negotiations and even a dramatic occupation of a dam in Chiahuaha state, two nations struggle to find a compromise.
Prolonged triple-digit temperatures also dramatically increased 911 calls for heat-related illness.
Oil sector advocates pushed hard against an ozone nonattainment designation, which would have required oilfield emissions reductions.