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Texas Environmental News 2020 - January 13 (4 minute read)

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Dow Chemical, the country’s largest producer of the carcinogen ethylene oxide, has been given the green light in Texas to continue standard manufacturing practices of the product. The odorless chemical used as a feed stock and to sterilize medical equipment is made at Dow’s chemical plant in Freeport. Prior to President Donald Trump’s presidency, the Environmental Protection Agency found the chemical to be a carcinogen. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality instated regulations in 2019 allowing exposure to the carcinogen to be 3500 times weaker than the EPA threshold, according to The Intercept. Leaks at the plant have been blamed for an extraordinary high rate of cancer in the area. In 2019 over 86 million dollars was donated by the chemical industry to political organizations, 1.4 billion in the past 12 years. As waste water injection wells become harder to come by especially in the world’s biggest oil field – the Permian Basin, pro oil and gas legislators
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Texas Environmental News - Week 40, 2018

Gulf Coast Ammonia wants to dump 2.2 trillion gallons of industrial wastewater annually into Galveston Bay, one of the most polluted bays in America. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is considering their permit request while Texas City officials are offering the plant, which will employ 25-50 full time employees, a ten-year tax abatement. Anhydrous ammonia, extremely toxic to aquatic life is used most often in the preparation of non-organic fertilizers. Shrimper Roy Lee Cannon told the Houston Chronicle, “I don’t see how they can say nothing’s going to be affected or there will be little effect on the environmental situation for the oysters, fish, shrimp etc because they have no way of knowing.” Buoyed by the Trump Administration’s pro fossil fuel stance, the build out of the Texas Gulf Coast petro-chemical industry is seeing its biggest expansion ever. To many in the Big Bend region who fear the night lights of the Permian Fracking Boom getting closer and brighter
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Texas Environmental News - July 21, 2018

The not so strong arm of the Trump Administration's Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Houston-based Energy XXI CEO John Schiller with failing to disclose more than $10 million in personal loans and perks from corporate vendors and board members according to the Houston Chronicle. The company is engaged in off-shore oil&gas drilling. SEC enforcement officer Anita Band said, "Secret backroom deals for the benefit of corporate insiders violate those duties and deprive investors of important information." Schiller will have to pay $180,000 fine and go to church for three Sundays in a row. According to a report from Climate Central the number of summer days above normal temperatures has been trending upwards. 92% of the 244 cities in the analysis are above the norm of the past fifty year average. The biggest temperature increases are happening in Louisiana, Florida and Texas. Heat stroke, respiratory illness and electrical bills are also up. The US E
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Texas Environmental News - Week 24

SMOG IN THE BIG BEND Smog continues to creep into the Big Bend as Oil&Gas drilling in the Permian and Alpine High crank to record levels. Alpine, Texas had ozone levels higher or the same as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Corpus Christi for five consecutive days this week according to figures obtained from government websites. Ozone is the atmospheric phenomena that creates smog through a combination of fossil-fuel derived gasses like nitrous oxide and volatile organic compounds including carcinogens toluene and benzene that when cooked with sunlight creates a serious respiratory health risk. On Tuesday, Midland-Odessa registered 119 on the ozone scale ranking 4 th nationally after Pahala, Hawaii, Ponce, Puerto Rico and the UTE Reservation in southern Colorado. FOLLOW THE MONEY In a follow the $ story, the hydrocarbon billionaire brothers of Koch Industries Inc. Bill and David, who have been accused of buying elections nationwide by donating billions of dollars to pol
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