An environmental group that recently slammed state regulators for failing to punish illegal polluters is now suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not cracking the whip on Texas regulators.
The Environmental Integrity Project and several Texas groups filed petitions with the EPA last year saying stricter permits were needed for Texas industries. The EPA did not take action, environmentalists said, so they filed five lawsuits Thursday seeking to force the agency's hand.
A written statement from the plaintiffs said that Texas issues "air pollution control permits that violate the law by allowing too much pollution and make limits for some of the state's largest polluters nearly impossible to enforce."
Both the EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said they do not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuits were filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.
Environmentalists said they previously asked the EPA to object to five disputed air emissions permits. But the agency didn't respond to any of them, according to the lawsuits.
The group is asking a judge to force EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to either approve or deny their requests. Even in cases when the EPA declines to object, the group has sometimes successfully used the court to reverse that decision.
Air Alliance Houston, Sierra Club and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services or TEJAS were the other plaintiffs in these lawsuits.
The lawsuits targeted five air emissions permits considered to be deficient. The closest one to the Dallas area is the coal-burning Welsh Power Plant in Pittsburg, Texas, about two hours to the east. That plant is owned by the Southwestern Electric Power Company or SWEPCO.
In the Welsh case, the EPA's 45-day permit review ended in September and the plaintiffs filed a petition in November asking the agency to object. The agency had 60 days to approve or deny the request.
The EIP said in its request to federal regulators that the Welsh plant permit violates the federal Clean Air Act and "fails to assure the enforceability of applicable federal requirements."
The owner of the Welsh plant recently spent $411 million on new pollution control equipment on two of the three units. The other one was retired last year.
The other permits targeted by the lawsuits were the Exxon Mobil olefins plant and refinery at its Baytown complex near Houston, Petrobras refinery in Pasadena and the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Port Arthur.
The Pasadena refinery, owned by Brazil's state oil company, is up for sale and caught up in a political scandal involving the country's president. The century-old facility has also been sued by Harris County over repeated air and water pollution violations.
Earlier this month, the EIP released a report criticizing Texas regulators for their lax approach to illegal emissions. The report found that the TCEQ fined companies for illegal emissions during maintenance and malfunctions only three percent of the time.
When that study was released, TCEQ spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said in a written statement that the agency "consistently pursues administrative, as well as civil enforcement, against noncompliant regulated industries in accordance with a vigorous, clearly articulated regulatory framework."