May 29, 2002
[download pdf version]
Unreported Emissions:
Perry Cash & Houston Smog
Traced To Common Source
Perry's Polluters
Campaign Cash Emissions, June '97-Dec '01
'Business Coalition for
Clean Air' Polluter		 Perry
Donations		 '99 Houston-Area
NOx Emissions
Reliant Energy  $132,500  50,504 tons/year
Texas Petrochemicals  $100,500  1,547 tons/year
Enterprise Products  $81,256  1,279 tons/year
Entergy  $30,000  2,865 tons/year
Shell  $12,000  8,384 tons/year
Dynegy  $11,500  362 tons/year
Dow Chemical  $11,000  18,314 tons/year
ExxonMobil  $10,500  21,028 tons/year
ChevronTexaco*  $6,500  3,089 tons/year
Occidental Petroleum†  $4,500  2,379 tons/year
Lyondell  $6,000  5,445 tons/year
Air Products & Chemicals  $2,000  182 tons/year
TOTAL  $408,256  115,378 tons/year
* Owns 26 percent of Dynegy; 
† In Equistar Chemicals joint venture.
Pressured by industrial polluters that have given Governor Perry $408,256, Texas officials are considering gutting their own plan to stop Houston from flunking federal air-quality standards. Instead, they want to substitute an industry air plan based on a ludicrous premise.

Because Houston has some of the nation’s filthiest air, the federal government forced Texas in 2000 to adopt a cleanup plan to make the Houston area meet U.S. air-quality standards. Masquerading as the Greater Houston Partnership’s “Business Coalition for Clean Air Appeal Group,” polluters that account for about 56 percent of Houston’s smog-producing nitrogen oxides (NOx) sued the state last year. Alleging that junk science marred the state plan, the polluter plaintiffs demanded fewer restrictions on their emissions.

At a minimum, the state based its cleanup plan on junk reporting. Results from air-monitoring planes that sampled toxic plumes directly over Houston industrial plants show that these polluters released an estimated 143,000 tons of ozone-forming “olefins” each year—or 12 times what polluters reported to the state.

Now polluters want to make reductions in previously unreported emissions part of their contribution to Houston’s clean-air plan, environmentalists say. Clean-air advocates warn that the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) is about to propose a new Houston air plan that does just that.

The last word on this scheme goes to three TNRCC commissioners who answer to Governor Perry. Perry has received $408,256 in campaign contributions in recent years from the very “Business Coalition for Clean Air Appeal Group” polluters that keep hacking away at clean-air plans for Houston. •
 
 

Business Coalition for Clean Air Appeal Group Lobby Contracts in 2001
Lobbyist
Min. Value
of Contract
Max. Value
of Contract
John 'Cliff' Johnson Jr.
$50,000
100,000
Clayton Pope
$50,000
$100,000
TOTAL:
$100,000
$200,000

#  #  #

Texans for Public Justice is a non-partisan, non-profit policy & research organization
 which tracks the influence of money in politics.

Lobby Watch | home