Chris Bell: The First Candidate To Make The Environment A Major Issue

Tony Sanchez didn’t do it; Rick Perry’s never done it, and George W. Bush certainly never did it. Carole Keeton Strayhorn will say she’s done it, but never really has.
Chris Bell is doing it right now.

What’s the ‘it’?

The ‘it’ is making environmental issues a major plank of a Texas gubernatorial campaign.  This shows not only true leadership on Bell’s part but also should alert Texans to the fact that Bell, above all the other candidates in this field, is addressing issues of importance to all Texans.
Unlike issues like school vouchers, abortion, or immigration—which other candidates use solely to appeal to their bases and drive uncomfortable wedges right through the state’s registered voters, Bell is actually taking a serious look at an issue that matters to all Texans. After all, we all drink the water and breathe the air in the Lone Star State.

Bell started a “Healthy Texas” tour Tuesday with a stop in Port Arthur, which will be followed by stops in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Mission and Corpus Christi, where he’s holding press conferences at “environmentally sensitive sites.”

Bell’s message, via his blog, is that “the declining quality of the air, water, and land, and the endangerment of wildlife in our state has become more than just a critical environmental concern; it is now an urgent health care issue that is threatening the well being of our families.

With the tour comes something heretofore unseen in a race for Texas Governor: a comprehensive environmental platform called the Healthy Texas Plan.

At various stops, Bell will be discussing the public health impact of billions of tons of toxic pollution emitted under Texas lax environmental regulations under the watch of Republican Governor Rick Perry.
Bell, a former Congressman and Houston City Councilman, isn’t without a positive record on environmental issues, either.  In 1999, while serving on the Houston City Council, Bell fought to implement a study to examine  economic impact of air pollution on community health. The study found that violations of the Clean Air Act cost the City of Houston around $3.1 billion per year in medical expenditures and lost productivity.

Bell will explored some solutions to this problem during a Houston press conference Tuesday. Via AP:

He said he wants to end to fast-track permitting for coal-fired power plants so residents who live near the plants can study the permit applications and voice opinions on possible health hazards. He also wants 10 percent of the state’s electricity to come from clean, Texas-based renewable energy sources.

Bell also lambasted Rick Perry’s record on the environment, noting that under the reign of Perry’s appointments to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ, formerly the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, or TNRCC), enfocement has been lax, at best:

“Under Rick Perry’s reign of error, polluters actually get rewarded for violating environmental laws,” Bell said.

[...]

He cited air pollution as a major health care issue and berated Perry’s lax enforcement of environmental laws and regulations by the governor’s administration. He said polluters pay minor fines for violations – if fined at all – while health care costs to treat respiratory illnesses exacerbated by dirty air reach into the billions.

[...]

Bell cited a 2003 state audit of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that said the agency failed to consistently hold violators accountable by imposing accurately calculated penalties or fully collecting delinquent fines.

In addition, the audit report said companies absorb the fines as the cost of doing business. The state audit showed that of 80 violation cases in fiscal years 2001, 2002 and 2003, companies made $8.6 million by not complying with air quality standards, compared to $1.7 million paid out in fines.

Bell’s environmental platform, however, touches on a number of issues from water conservation and air pollution to land management and hunting and fishing.Highlights Of The Bell “Healthy Texas” Environmental Platform

•End Rick Perry’s “grandfather” provisions that grant immunity from municipal regulations that protect the health, safety and property of nearby landowners.
•Enforce existing environmental protection regulations and force the TCEQ to collect all fines and penalties called for by state law.
•Repeal legislation promoted by Rick Perry that allows the state to interfere with local prosecutors’ ability to prosecute the worst polluters.
•Mandate a 90 percent reduction of mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants to prevent birth defects.
•Ban the importation of nuclear waste and the construction of nuclear power plants when safer alternatives are available.
•Repeal any legislation that restricts the ability of local governments to protect the water quality, public safety, and health of their residents.
•Establish a Texas “Cool State” program. The State of Texas should implement energy efficiency standards that encourage the wise use of energy in our homes, offices, and commercial facilities, and phase out incentives that encourage inefficiency. State government buildings and infrastructure should pioneer this transition to lead the way and save the state money.
•Call for 10% of the state’s electricity to come from Texas-based, non-polluting renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by 2015. Encourage community-based environmental improvement programs to improve cityscapes and empower local action.
•End the fast-tracking of permits for coal-fired power plants to provide sufficient time to gather information and allow local citizens to become informed about associated health risks.
•“Green” the state vehicle fleets by encouraging the purchase of high-efficiency and renewable energy vehicles to reduce smog in congested cities and cut down on state fuel costs.
•Enact a common-sense transportation policy that raises vehicle emissions standards and includes tax credits for lower-emissions vehicles.
• Provide clean and safe drinking water to all Texans. State and federal funding needs to be dedicated to improving the inadequate water and wastewater treatment systems across the state, particularly along the border. Local infrastructure needs to be upgraded until levels of illness-causing bacteria in all of our state’s public waters are reduced to meet EPA standards.
•Encourage conservation and efficient use of Texas existing water supplies. Municipal, agricultural and industrial water users can adopt aggressive water conservation practices, both large and small-scale, to make better use of our existing reservoirs. Texas needs to stress conservation rather than construction, by making the most of current water supplies before we start building dams and pipelines to develop new ones. When the development of new water supplies is necessary, Texas must require a thorough analysis of the present and future costs and the environmental impact of proposed large new reservoirs compared to alternative sources of public water supplies.
•Protect Texas streams, rivers, bays and estuaries. Water planners and managers must monitor the inflows of Texas rivers and streams to ensure that adequate fresh water reaches Texas coastal bays and estuaries to maintain their productivity as fisheries and wildlife habitats.
•Develop a state water plan that preserves Texans’ water rights and gives regional groundwater conservation districts the authority to preserve the water within their districts by setting standards related to the density of development and green building.
•Develop a dependable source of funding for acquisition, maintenance, and management of Texas state & local parks to meet growing habitat preservation and recreation needs.
•Protect Texans’ property rights against Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn’s proposals to take private land for state funded projects, such as the Trans-Texas Corridor and the uncontrolled development along the corridor.
•Pass a constitutional amendment to protect hunting and fishing access rights in Texas and protect wildlife habitats through better land and water management.

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