By Jennifer Hiller of San Antonio Express News
Federal environmental regulations — and their impact on the Texas economy — will be the focus of a special Texas House committee Speaker Joe Straus plans to convene.
The committee will study things such as the economic ripple effect of new, more stringent ozone standards, said Straus, R-San Antonio. He made the announcement at a Tuesday meeting of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association at the San Antonio Country Club, and said he would release more details about the committee later this week.
“It’s disappointing yet unsurprising that Washington is pursing regulations that could severely harm the manufacturing climate here in San Antonio,” Straus said.
San Antonio is one of the few major U.S. cities still in compliance for ozone, a pollutant that poses a threat to asthmatics and others with respiratory difficulties.
View an interactive map of the compliant and non-compliant areas HERE.
But the city already has exceeded the current standard of 75 parts per billion at its Camp Bullis monitor, with a three-year average of 78 ppb, under a compliance system overseen by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The Environmental Protection Agency said a new standard of 70 ppb will take effect in as little as two years. If applied now, the level at the Camp Bullis monitor and at a near Northwest Side monitor would be in violation of that standard but not a third monitor on the Southeast Side.
“These new standards are concerning many of us because they could push Bexar County into nonattainment for the very first time,” Straus said. “These federal standards will force more regulations on businesses here in San Antonio, affecting existing manufacturers and certainly affecting future growth.”
Rey Chavez, president of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, said local manufacturers are concerned about the more stringent requirements and already have been working to bring down emissions. Chavez said he liked the idea of an economic impact study.
“It will give us data we can take a look at to see what the major impacts will be,” Chavez said. “We have more manufacturers moving to Texas.”
The state of Texas also recently announced it is leading a multistate lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.
The plan, details of which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized earlier this year, requires every state by 2030 to cut carbon emissions 30 percent from 2005 levels.
Straus also said he will ask the Economic and Small Business Development Committee to look at topics that include the ways that high schools, colleges and employers can work together to make sure career training is available and relevant, as well as review whether state economic incentive programs do enough to encourage the growth and development of small businesses.
Straus said he will ask lawmakers to study how declining oil prices affects businesses and communities closely tied to oil and gas activity. Oil prices have been cut in half since last summer.
While the state has become more economically diversified since the devastating oil bust in the 1980s, Straus said oil and gas remains a major industry for Texas.
“There still is an impact,” Straus said.
During the time between legislative sessions, committees often do in-depth studies of issues. The lieutenant governor assigns interim charges for Senate committees, while the speaker of the House assigns interim charges for House committees. The Legislature does not convene again until January 2017.
jhiller@express-news.net