Companies in Texas Attribute 1 Million Pounds of Air Pollution to Recent Freezing Weather
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Legal exemptions provide flexibility for what counts as excusable, “unintentional” emissions, but federal regulators have taken small steps to tighten the rules
By Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News, and Alejandra Martinez, Texas Tribune
January 26, 2024
Frigid weather this month caused industrial facilities across Texas to release unplanned air pollution as machinery froze, power went out and icy conditions blocked service crews.
Over four chilly days between Jan. 14 and 17, companies submitted reports to Texas’ environmental regulator, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, that attributed at least 36 instances of “unintentional” emissions to the freezing temperatures.
According to the companies’ preliminary estimates, those incidents collectively produced more than a million pounds of air pollution. That’s a small figure compared with the massive volumes of permitted emissions released every day across this large, industry-heavy state. But the reports illustrate the sensitivity of facilities to the weather and expose a long-standing loophole in environmental enforcement that allows companies to exceed permitted emissions limits without consequence under certain conditions.
“Polluters continue to skimp on weatherization, which leads to big pollution dumps during extreme cold and hot weather,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of the nonprofit Environment Texas, which compiled and analyzed the recent freeze-related emission reports.
It’s typical to see pollution spikes during extreme weather, from arctic blasts to tropical storms and heat waves. Metzger and other public health advocates in Texas say companies and regulators could do more to reduce unplanned emissions.
Carolina Espinosa, a spokesperson for the Texas Chemistry Council, which represents over 200 facilities in the chemical manufacturing industry, said companies have done “extensive winterization” to “safeguard against impacts from the weather.” Still, she acknowledged that during severe weather, electricity outages or other supply chain disruptions “may result in unplanned emissions.”
In one incident last week, Formosa Plastics Corp. burned off large volumes of ethylene, a chemical with a faint sweet and musky odor, at its massive Lavaca Bay complex. Other nearby plants that typically purchased Formosa’s ethylene had gone offline and closed their pipelines, forcing the company to dispose of the product.
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