"Grandfathered plants" are the subject of state legislation once again.
Thirty years after it became part of Texas law, the end could be in sight for a controversial air-pollution loophole that bedeviled George W. Bush on his way to the White House.
The Legislature will tackle the issue of grandfathered plants this year, as it did in 1997 and 1999.
Although the 2001 session is young, there are indications that lawmakers may rescind the permit exemption that lets many older industrial facilities avoid stricter pollution controls.
"The chances are really very good" it will happen, said Ken Kramer, state director of the Sierra Club.
"It's not a slam-dunk," said Kramer, a prominent opponent of the exemption. "But signs are increasingly good for the Legislature to end the loophole."
He noted, for instance, that Democrats in the state Senate have said that removing the exemption is a priority.
"Last time, they weren't organized or up to speed by the time the issue came up in the Senate," he said.
Also, a key Republican lawmaker said last week that he favors ending the permit exemption.
Republican Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa predicted that lawmakers will require grandfathered plants "to come in and make arrangements to get permits, or close down."
There is "too much of an air issue in Texas" to let the permit exemption remain in place, said Chisum, whose chairmanship of the House Environmental Regulation Committee makes him one of the Legislature's most powerful members on pollution issues.
Grandfathered facilities range from sprawling industrial plants to compressors on pipelines. The number is debated, but recent state statistics list about 800 industrial "sites."
One thing that should be made clear is that a grandfathered facility may be just part of a plant. So a flare might be grandfathered, but the smokestack next to it might have a permit. It can be pretty confusing.
The issue dates to 1971, when legislators set up a system under the state's first Clean Air Act for polluting facilities to obtain emission permits.
The permits - required at new plants and when existing plants are significantly modified - often require tighter pollution controls. They always bring greater regulatory scrutiny.
Plants that were in existence or under construction in 1971 were exempted from the permit requirement. Industrial leaders predicted that emissions from these facilities would soon dwindle, because they would either be mothballed as obsolete or have to get permits when modernization occurred.
After Bush became governor in 1995, his appointees at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission decided to take a new look at the issue. A key reason, TNRCC officials said, was that they realized how hard it would be to find enough new emission-cutting measures to meet demanding federal mandates for cleaner air in Houston and other Texas cities.
TNRCC officials found that grandfathered facilities still accounted for much of the state's industrial pollution, far out of proportion to their numbers.
After the statistics became public, environmentalists and health advocates began trying again to end the permit exemption. Joining industrial leaders in opposing that push, Bush championed the concept of inducing grandfathered facilities to volunteer for permits. He maintained this position from the time the issue resurfaced, early in 1997, until the waning days of the Legislature's 1999 session.
At the time, Bush backed a compromise that produced two laws. One ended the permit exemption for power plants and ordered them to reduce emissions. The second created a voluntary permit program for other industrial facilities.
The non-power facilities - mainly in oil, gas and petrochemicals - were given until September 2001 to apply for voluntary permits, which require less stringent controls than the regular permits that new and modified plants have to get.
Lawmakers always regarded the voluntary program as "a two-year window" for grandfathered plants to get permits, Chisum said. That window will be closed soon.
The question now is the timing of the permit exemption's demise, Chisum said.
It isn't as if anyone should be surprised. There was no penalty for remaining grandfathered. Voluntary only goes so far.
Only one major grandfathered facility has obtained a voluntary permit. Forty-two applications are pending, and 166 facilities have pledged to apply by the Sept. 1 deadline, the report said. The intentions of the owners of about 550 grandfathered sites is unknown, it said.
Of course, industry continues to bleat about how requiring permits and pollution controls will cause shutdowns of old, polluting facilities.
Many of the units produce little air pollution and are in remote areas that don't violate air-quality standards, said Cindy Morphew, the Texas Oil & Gas Association's vice president for environmental affairs.
If such facilities are required to get permits and to add new pollution controls, the costs may be so steep that some operators will shut them down, she said.
Nonsense.
