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Smog alert | page 1, 2
The groups focused on Bush's failure to enforce air-quality regulations on so-called grandfathered industrial plants that are exempt from current air-quality rules. "What we've seen is an attempt to deny there's a problem and to delay any attempt to clean up the air," said Tom Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen. "When given an opportunity to hit a home run and clear the air over Texas and end the grandfathered plants loophole, Gov. Bush bunted and barely got to first base. Instead of reducing emissions by 50 percent he's only getting a fraction of the reduction he could have obtained from these older dirty plants." The Bush campaign quickly launched a counterattack. Scott McClellan, a Bush spokesman, pointed out that Texas has air problems for many reasons, not least of which is the high concentration of industrial development. Texas contains a quarter of the nation's oil refineries and two-thirds of its petrochemical plants and it generates more electricity than any other state, said McClellan. And he added that since 1994, industrial air emissions statewide have decreased by 10 percent. Bush was "the first Texas governor to call on and get grandfathered plants to significantly reduce air emissions." Those reductions, McClellan said "will reduce air emissions by a total of 250,000 tons per year. That's the equivalent of 5.5 million cars being removed from Texas roads." In fact, when he was asked recently to name his biggest environmental achievement, Bush quickly answered, "The air is cleaner." He continued, "I think you have to ask the question is the air cleaner since I became the governor. And the answer is yes." Bush points to Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission data that says industrial emissions have declined by 11 percent between 1994 and 1997. But during that same time period smog alerts in Austin, Dallas and Houston have increased in frequency. And according to data compiled by the TNRCC, ground-level ozone readings rose in 11 of the 13 metropolitan areas in Texas between early 1996 and the end of 1998. The air problems in Dallas and Fort Worth are so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency may cut off federal highway funds unless the state comes up with a viable plan to reduce smog in the region. At present, four Texas metropolitan areas are in violation of federal clean-air laws -- Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, El Paso and Beaumont-Port Arthur. And the EPA has warned Texas officials that four other cities, Austin, San Antonio, Tyler and Longview, will be added to the violators list by next summer. "Where's the proof that the air is getting cleaner?" asks Neil Carman, the clean-air program director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "It doesn't show up in the monitoring data."
- - - - - - - - - - - - Sound off Related Salon stories Campaign Trail 2000 The Salon News guide to the millennial elections. Why won't George W. Bush talk about AIDS? Texas gays say their governor's "compassionate conservatism" doesn't include them.
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