Chronicle slams Rs on pollution votes

Five bids to control pollution kept at bay
Houston-area lawmakers voted to table legislation that was aimed at public safety

By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The majority of Houston-area lawmakers in the Texas House voted against legislation intended to protect the public from toxic air pollution, a Houston Chronicle analysis of 2005 voting records has found.

The five rejected amendments would have made the state's health screening levels for pollution more strict, required companies to continuously monitor emissions and set fines for the periodic releases known as "upsets" that plague fence-line neighborhoods.

Yet 20 of 34 representatives in the eight-county region, where toxic pollution problems have been well-documented, particularly along the Houston Ship Channel, voted to table these actions.

All 20 of the dissenters are Republicans, some of them representing industrial districts such as Pasadena, Baytown and Seabrook, where people and industry exist side by side.

Typically, a party-line vote on legislation to increase regulations on industry would not be surprising. However, legislators during this year's regular session were presented with increasing evidence that toxic pollution was a problem locally and that Houston residents were more concerned than ever about its impact on health.

Kudos to the Chronicle for reporting this straight up. Rs voted against pollution standards. Most papers would have buried the actual story with an effort to seek a false balance. Call a spade a spade. The truth is not always halfways between what the two parties say and the media has an obligation to search it out.

Several local lawmakers said they voted against the amendments solely on the legislation's merits, not because they were unconcerned about pollution or influenced by industry donations.

"We can always do better. We just want to do better fairly," said Rep. Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, whose district includes the massive ExxonMobil refinery. "I do believe we should have good quality air to breathe."

When you have to assert you support clean air, you don't. It's like when Bush says we don't torture.

In January, both the state and the Houston Chronicle released data showing several communities had levels of chemicals that could increase the risk of contracting cancer. The findings prompted community meetings and special Houston City Council hearings.

Cancer! Brings to mind the quote attributed to Pericles in 430 BC: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."

Republicans=Cancer! (new bumper sticker)

Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, whose tabled amendment would have lowered the levels the state uses to screen pollution's health effects, agreed.

"I didn't need many more votes. I am a mainstream Republican member and a lot of mainstream Republicans follow me," Goodman said. "I get closer than anyone else, but I still don't win. Industry is the reason you don't win, the mindset of the members of the House against further regulation, and the misguided perception that if you vote for an amendment to clean up the air and water you are some sort of liberal activist."

Voting Republican (with few exceptions like Goodman) means giving industry free rein to do whatever the hell it wants.

Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, who chairs the House committee on Environmental Regulation and who raised the motion to table the amendments, said his "significant contributions" from the industry had nothing to do with it.

Yes, and we don't torture.

His votes, he said, are in line with his constituents, who view the risk posed by pollution very differently than residents of east Houston.

"In the Ship Channel, these are big corporate companies that have no benefit. The people that live by those plants have no connection to them and just live there, and they view" pollution as a nuisance, Bonnen said.

"The people (I represent) work in these plants and live here," he said. "We understand these things, and we don't think they are dangerous."

Bonnen, an insurance agent with a liberal arts degree who works for a bank, is not an environmental health expert, but he plays one in the Texas lege.

Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, said he has seen no proof of an increased risk of cancer from pollution.

"I have been around this all my life, I have been up to my waist in the levee which holds dredgings from out of the Ship Channel, and I don't have cancer yet," Talton said.

Brilliant logic, Talton. Talton, you might guess, lacks a background in simple statistics (sample size=1 is usually not so definitive), but is an attorney who has made a crusade out of banning adoptions by gay people.

Anyway, good reporting by the Chronicle, shameful votes by Houston legislators.