milestones
Air Pollution | |
Breath Easy: Cleaner Burning DieselIn 2001, TCE Fund co-released a report with Public Citizen on the health impact of pollution from diesel engines. These include high levels of smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, as well as fine particles linked to increased risk of heart failure and carcinogens. This research helped convince the Texas Department of Transportation and the Austin Independent School District to switch their fleets to cleaner-burning fuels. |
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Follow the Money: Air Pollution and Campaign ContributionsFor thirty years the Grandfather Loophole in the Clean Air Act of 1971 exempted many older polluting facilities from installing modern pollution control devices. In 1999 TCE Fund issued its first major research report on the political contributions of the top 100 companies with “grandfathered” air emissions. TCE Fund discovered that the Political Action Committees (PACs), lobbyists and industry associations made more that $10 million in political expenditures from 1993 to 1998. Sitting Texas state legislators, the Governor and Lt. Governor had received more than $4.6 million in direct campaign contributions during this period. TCE Fund set up a searchable database on the Web of campaign contributions to Texas politicians. TCE Fund also tracked the contributions to the Presidential candidates in the 2000 elections. This research garnered coverage in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Newsweek, Time, National Public Radio, MSNBC, The Toronto Star, and television broadcasts from Japan, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. The Grandfather Loophole in the Texas Clean Air Act was closed by the state legislature in May 2001. |
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General Issues | |
Citizen's Compaints: Is Anybody Listening?For decades environmental advocates have championed the Right to Know as a basic cornerstone principle. TCE Fund extended that idea to the public's right to know about citizen pollution complaints. In 2000, TCE Fund issued a groundbreaking study of citizen pollution complaints that had been filed with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (now the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ) between 1996 through 1999. We also decided to put the database of 35,000 records in a searchable format on the Web. TCE Fund also developed a number of case studies from around the state. These detailed case studies indicated that many complaints were never recorded by the agency and that some staff actively discouraged the public from filing complaints. Furthermore, evidence showed that staff often overlooks serious problems and failed to enforce environmental laws when clear violations existed. “We as land owners complain, we file complaints, and it disappears down a black hole. You get no feedback, nobody will tell you anything, and you get stonewalled.” The outpouring of community dissatisfaction and TCE Fund’s report convinced policy-makers and the TCEQ to adopt reforms. The agency has since: |
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Landfills and Recycling Focus | |
Stronger Landfill Rules to Stop the Trashing of TexasIn 2006, TCE Fund co-released a report comparing the rules for trash facilities in Texas with the standards in other states and with the standards for other major polluting facilities regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The report was titled “Texas Trash Rules Matter: Why Stronger Rules are Needed for Super-sized Landfill to Stop the Trashing of Texas.” It was released at a press conference in Dallas with the cooperation of residents near proposed landfills. The report garnered excellent television and print coverage in the Dallas area and was the catalyst for print stories in other major daily newspapers such as The Houston Chronicle and The Austin American Statesman. |
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TCE Fund E-Waste Focus | |
Advocating for E-Waste SolutionsTCE Fund co-released a toolkit in 2006 with its sister organization, Texas Campaign for the Environment outlining the benefits of producer takeback recycling for local governments. It is titled “Toolkit for Passing Electronic Waste Producer TakeBack Recycling Resolutions in Texas.” It was distributed to household hazardous waste managers at their quarterly meeting at the TCEQ headquarters and to local activists and local government officials. Over a dozen local governments in Texas have passed resolutions in favor of producer takeback recycling for electronic waste. |
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Mother's Milk: Flame Retardants and Green ChemistryIn 2003, TCE Fund assisted in research projects which found toxic fire retardants used in electronics and other consumer products in the breast milk of every American woman tested. Generally, the levels of these chemicals were 10 to 100 times the levels of European women. Research released by TCE Fund helped convince the U.S. EPA to reach a voluntary agreement with the manufacturer to phase out some of these fire retardants. |
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Poison PCs and Toxic TVsIn 2004 TCE Fund assisted in the travel of youth activists to Portland, OR. to participate in a demonstration at the final meeting of the National Electronics Products Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI). The demonstration was part of our pressure on NEPSI partners to oppose efforts by IBM to place the costs of electronic waste recycling on taxpayers. In Portland, the national Computer TakeBack Campaign (now the Electronics TakeBack Coalition) released a national report “Poison PCs and Toxic TVs,” which documented the extent, the environmental impact and cost of the electronic waste problem nationally and in Oregon. The demonstration and report released were covered by radio media, including the statewide National Public Radio station in Oregon. |
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