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Despite the harms posed by the petrochemical industry, the report also noted the lack of adequate enforcement and oversight from local and state regulators. “We found a consistent flouting of the already inadequate regulations,” Schaaf said. “There s a lot of space between what the rules are in paper and how they are actually followed.” For instance, a recent review of the TCEQ by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, part of the Texas Legislature that periodically audits state agencies, concluded that TCEQ’s compliance monitoring and enforcement processes “need improvements to more effectively discourage violations and focus on the riskiest actors.” Furthermore, Schaaf said a “jaw-dropping” finding from the report is that companies can dodge penalties for pollution violations by invoking the so-called affirmative defense — a legal loophole in Texas that waives air pollution enforcement for a company if it reports the pollution event as “unplanned and unavoidable”. “There s a lot of space between what the rules are in paper and how they are actually followed.”- Marta Schaaf, Amnesty InternationalAn analysis by the Sunset Commission found that the TCEQ granted the affirmative defense in more than 85% of unauthorized emissions events from 2017 to 2021, the report noted. The TCEQ told EHN it does not comment on reports the agency hasn’t yet reviewed. We will update the story if they respond.
Documenting the harms of the petrochemical industry
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