TOXIC RELASES:
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Industrial polluters released more than 250
million pounds of toxic chemicals into Texas’ environment in 1996, according
to onsite Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data from the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). Texas led the nation in these toxic emissions that year,
accounting for 12 percent of the nation’s total toxic load.
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Members of the Texas Chemical Council trade
group accounted for a staggering 74 percent of Texas’ emissions of these
toxins; their Texas facilities pumped out 187 million pounds of toxic
wastes. The emissions of members of the Texas Chemical Council alone exceeded
the total toxic emissions of every state other than Texas
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DuPont led TCC members in total toxic pollution,
releasing over 40 million pounds of toxins into the water, land and air.
BASF Corporation ranked second in overall pollution, releasing 17 million
pounds of toxins, followed by Hoechst Celanese, Huntsman Corporation, British
Petroleum, Mobil Corporation and Sterling Chemicals, each of which released
over 10 million pounds of toxins.
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Chemical Council members also produce 27 percent
of all the so-called “grandfathered” air pollution in Texas skies,
emitting 244,260 tons of it a year. Three of Texas’ top five grandfathered
air polluters—ALCOA, Mobil and Exxon—are Chemical Council members.
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Texas also led the nation in the industrial
release of known and suspected carcinogens tracked by the EPA. Texas had
15.6 million pounds of such emissions; no other state cleared 10 million
pounds.
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Individual Texas plants owned by Chemical
Council members led the nation in emissions of certain known and suspected
carcinogens. Huntsman’s Port Arthur plant was No. 1 in the country in benzene
emissions and Lyondell’s Channelview plant was No. 1 in 1,3-Butadiene emissions.
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Chemical Council member companies account
for 100 percent of the Texas releases of certain suspected carcinogens
such as acrylamide (2.4 million pounds) and acetamide (559,104 pounds).
In fact, all of the state’s acetamide releases came from a single source:
BP Chemicals’ Port Lavaca plant.
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Harris County led the nation in emissions
of suspected carcinogens (5.1 million pounds); Jefferson County ranked
No. 8 nationally (1.9 million pounds); Brazoria County ranked ninth (1.7
million pounds).
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POLITICAL RELEASES:
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Led by the Coastal Employee Action Fund ($412,656),
20 Chemical Council member PACs spent $2.2 million from 1995 through
1998 and gave more than $1 million to current Texas Legislators and occupants
of statewide elected offices.
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Governor Bush received the most Chemical Council
member PAC money ($115,871), followed by Attorney General John Cornyn ($77,350).
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Current members of the Legislature took $582,375
from Chemical Council member PACs.
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Although they occupy just 14 percent of legislative
seats, the 25 members who sit on environmental committees received 24 percent
of the Legislature’s Chemical Council member PAC money ($140,425). Key
members of these environmental committees repeatedly outdid themselves
to advance the Chemical Council’s legislative priorities.
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Arguably the biggest legislative advocate
of the Chemical Council’s agenda, Senate Natural Resources Chair Buster
Brown, took more Chemical Council member PAC money ($24,900) than any other
member of the Legislature’s three environmental committees.
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In 1999 alone, Chemical Council members hired
222 lobbyists, paying them up to $8.7 million. Chemical lobby powerhouse
DuPont hired 21 lobbyists, paying them up to $1.2 million.
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The chemical lobby’s top guns were Baker and
Botts lobbyists Pam Giblin and Larry Feldcamp, who will bill 22 Chemical
Council member companies up to $550,000 in 1999. The next runner up was
ex-TNRCC Commissioner John Hall, who reported three 1999 contracts with
Chemical Council members worth up to $300,000.
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