State Weakens Pollution Controls For Corporations

It's no secret that the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex area has some of the dirtiest air in the state of Texas. It's been many years since they met federal air pollution standards. The EPA is tired of it, and has demanded that the area clean up its air, especially the ozone level, by 2010 or lose large amounts of federal funding.

In order to clean up the air, city leaders in the area had joined with enviornmentalists and come up with a plan. It wasn't a bad plan either. The EPA was ready to sign off on it, because they thought the plan had a good chance of bringing the area into compliance with federal standards by 2010.

But that was before the politicians and corporations got their grubby hands on the plan.

You see, a large part of the pollution comes from the huge cement kilns located southeast of Ft. Worth. These cement plants are the largest industrial producers of ozone-forming pollution in the area. But the corporate owners of these plants went whining to the state commission, saying the plan was "too tough" on them.

The plan called for the companies to try out new technologies that would cut their pollution by 90%. Instead, the state decided they only needed to cut their pollution by 40%. This is not surprising.

The Republicans running our state government have shown us time after time that they believe corporate profits are more important than anything else. More important than breathable air or the health of metroplex citizens.

The failure to make these huge corporate kilns stop polluting has now called into question the validity of the plan as a whole. EPA regional director Richard Greene believes the revised plan will not let the area meet federal standards by 2010, and says the EPA may not approve the plan passed by the state.

Greene says, "I am very concerned by these reports, and worry that the changes from the proposal, if adopted, would convert the (plan) from one that I believed had a strong chance of approval to (a plan) that...may not be approvable."

There are already many summer days in the metroplex when the ozone level is so high that it's unhealthy to spend much time outdoors. I guess this will get even worse, as the state sacrifices public health on the altar of corporate profits.

Personally, I think if these companies can't stop the polluting without going out of business, maybe they should go out of business. I bet it wouldn't take long for someone to take their place - someone willing to try the new pollution-free technologies.