Environmental Insider News articles from November 2001

Environmental Insider News archives from November 2001

Is Freight Rail Better Than Light Rail?
November 3, 2001... Big-city Texas mayors in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio have of late been championing light rail as the solution to traffic congestion. But light-rail opponent Wendell Cox, in a new report released by Texas Public Policy Foundation,...

Driessen: Unlock Domestic Energy, Minerals.
November 3, 2001... In a brand-new report prepared for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, analyst Paul K. Driessen says the United States must change its attitude toward developing its massive domestic energy reserves or else it could lose the war against...

DOI Reverses Clinton Mining Policies.
November 3, 2001... The U.S. Department of the Interior has issued new mining regulations that reverse some Clinton-era provisions while keeping a requirement that mining operators post bonds to guarantee that they will perform site cleanups at the end of mining...

Cherry Blossoms.
November 3, 2001... EI NEWS has learned that EPA employee Sharyn Erickson will have to wait until the agency's Office of Inspector General staff gets back from an "all-hands conference" in Phoenix, Arizona, before she gets her day in court in her revitalized...

House Gets Interim Assignments.
November 14, 2001... House Speaker Pete Laney recently announced the interim charges for House committees. We thought you would like a rundown on assignments given to the committees on energy resources, environmental regulation, land and resource management,...

Houston Barge Cleaner Indicted.
November 14, 2001... Houstonian Tony Ray Sansing has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and eight counts of violating the Clean Water Act. Sansing, who was the supervisor at Western Towing Company's barge cleaning facility in Houston, was charged with...

$225K Penalty for Pipeline Explosion.
November 14, 2001... After rejecting a proposed settlement agreement that would have imposed a penalty of $25,000, Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza on November 6 signed a consent order that requires Exxon/Mobil Pipeline Company to pay an administrative penalty of...

Two Texas Firms Score with EPA.
November 21, 2001... Two Texas small businesses have come up big with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which recently announced it was awarding contracts to the firms for final development and initial commercialization of new environmental technologies to...

TPJ "Blames" Perrier for Prop 19 Success.
November 21, 2001... The advocacy group Texans for Public Justice says it is not sure just why it happened, but bottled water companies, led by Perrier Group of America and Coca-Cola of NA (bottlers of Dasani water), raised a collective $125,000 to promote passage...

Colorado AG Butts into Elephant Butte Dispute.
November 21, 2001... Under the 1938 Rio Grande Compact, New Mexico is required to pass on 707,000 acre-feet per year of quality water to Texas in the Rio Grande. Ongoing arguments over whether New Mexico is living up to this agreement led the Texas Legislature to...

CEQ-You Later, Alligator.
November 21, 2001... Even though at least one staffer has been seen wearing a T-shirt depicting the moniker, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality," the Agency Name Change Implementation Team announced earlier this month plans for a phased-in approach to...

Big Issues Raised in Bosque Battle.
November 26, 2001... Some very interesting arguments regarding the extent to which TNRCC should or should not be regulating concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO's) in the Bosque region, and all TPDES permits statewide, were raised by attorneys representing...

Texas Tidbits.
November 26, 2001... Public Citizen Blocks TNRCC /New Source Rules Approval. EPA has withdrawn the direct final rule to approve revisions to the Texas General Rules and Regulations for Control of Air Pollution by Permits for New Sources and Modifications because of...

Cherry Blossoms.
November 26, 2001... Diesel EGR Technical Paper. EPA on November 20 asked for public comments on a staff technical paper on Nonroad Diesel Emissions Standards [which is available on EPA's website at www.epa.gov/otaq/equip-hd.htm]. The document discusses nonroad...