Dive Brief:

• The Environmental Defense Fund and the Caddo Lake Institute have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take over permitting in Texas under the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act saying the state is not doing its duty to protect citizens from pollution.
• The groups say new laws in Texas are limiting who can participate in proceedings as "affected" parties, and the state's Council on Environmental Quality and local government agencies are not adequately funded to protect the environment.
• The environmental advocates also asked the EPA to "withdraw its delegation of permitting authority" under the CWA and find that Texas’s new source review permitting program under the Clean Air Act is deficient.

Dive Insight:

EDF and Caddo submitted their petition to the EPA on Jan. 11, and followed with a statement giving more background. The groups say that during the last Texas legislative session, as the state considered changes to the review process, EPA sent a letter warning that proposed legislation would weaken CAA and CWA safeguards.

“The legislature and Governor [Greg] Abbott [R] thumbed their noses at these warnings," said EDF Regional Director Jim Marston. "They passed and signed laws, respectively, that resulted in Texas’s clean air and clean water programs no longer meeting minimum legal safeguards, which puts the health of Texas families at risk.”

According to EDF, the new laws create unfair legal processes that deprive citizens of the right to oppose projects and could result in more pollution in the state.

"The legislature also has repeatedly underfunded the state environmental agency to the point that the TCEQ cannot adequately do its job," Marston said. "Sadly, because our current office holders will not protect Texans from dangerous pollution, we have no choice but to ask EPA to exercise its fundamental duty under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and to retake responsibility to administer these vital national health programs.” 

As for how far the petition will go, EPA told The Hill it will consider the request but is "not aware of significant deficiencies in TCEQ delegated environmental programs at this time,” according to a spokesperson.

States are allowed to administer various programs under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act so long as they have sufficient rules and funding in place to meet or exceed the federal standards. 

The Texas Council on Environmental Quality described the petition as "frivolous," and expects the federal agency to reject it.