Part 111: How to Make Smog

Ground level ozone is formed when Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Volatile organic compounds (VOC's) mix with sunlight in the summer to bake. This is commonly called smog. An inventory of sources for these smog-forming chemicals include automobiles, trucks, buses, industrial smokestacks and gasoline stations.

Studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that from an overall economic perspective, the least expensive way to reduce ozone pollution is to control stationary industrial sources. By 1995, the EPA was exploring new stricter controls on ozone pollution.

Working for Polluters

In Texas, after taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in campalign contributions from representatives of polluting industries, Gov. Bush's administration got to work defending the interests of the polluters.

Beginning in August of 1995, only nine months into Gov. Bush's first administration, his TNRCC appointees began an aggressive campalign to build public support against proposed EPA ozone standards. This campalign is one of the most visible examples of the close relationship between Gov. Bush and polluting industry.

The public opposition from Gov. Bush's appointees against the new proposed federal standards for ozone and particulates are covered in Part One and Two of the series. Efforts included attempts to statistically juggle monitoring data and personally influence Congress to reject the new standards. The agency also conducted a slick public relations campalign producing materials that distorted the ozone pollution problems that were sending Texans to the emergency rooms.

Ultimately the efforts by Governor Bush's administration to completely stop the new stricter federal standards failed. However the did succeed in weakening the proposed federal standards to save his supporter millions of dollars in pollution control costs.

Supplemental Environmental Programs

Another example of campalign contribution and concern is the TNRCC's Supplemental Environmental Programs (SEP's) In exchange for paying a reduced penalty, a company found guilty of violating environmental laws could propose a program that would reduce pollution, enhance the quality of the environment or increase environmental awareness in the public. These programs were developed as a way to put resources back into a community that had suffered from pollution due to a violation of state environmental laws.

As PEERdocumented in Part Two of this series, under the Bush administration this program was subverted, and used to subsidize business activities for the violating company that would have occurred normally or had no environmental benefit to the surrounding community.

Between 1996 and 1998 companies that took advantage of these Supplemental Environmental Programs contributed $116,461 to Bush's gubernatorial campaligns.

Rolling Back Regulations/ Hydrogen Fluoride Controls

Another anti-environmental initiative in Texas covered in Part Two of this series was a rollback of state regulations that have no corresponding federal regulation or requirement. The regulations concerning hydrogen fluoride were important to the coal burning utilities and the semiconductor industry. They contributed over $112,700 to Bush's campaligns.

Other Attacks on Texas Environmental Regulation

Many of the policy changes made by the Bush appointees at the TNRCC to weaken environmental protection cannot be directly linked to benefit a specific company. However several of the policy changes including cutting the enforcement budget, requiring prior notification before conducting annual inspections, and the shift to voluntary compliance for enforcement measures send a clear signal to the polluting industries that their financial support was paying off

In addition to the contributions that we have already listed, Gov. Bush accepted over $10,000 from major polluters and $239,000 from their agents and lobbyists.

Pollution Pays in Presidential Politics

The greatest source of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels by motor vehicles, and electric power plants. Members of the trade associations for these industries have stepped up their campalign contributions to influence the upcoming elections.

In November of this year The New Hampshire Citizens Alliance published a study analyzing campalign contributions to leading candidates in the Race for President. During just the first nine months of this year, George W. Bush has received $521,714 from members of the Edison Electric Institute, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

This represents 80% of the total hard money contributions from these industries. This total is almost four times more than all other Presidential candidates combined have received from companies belonging to these trade associations.

Fair Use Notice: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, economic, democratic, domestic and international issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.