One of the bills would fine people who file multiple complaints with the state's environmental agency.
One person who knows a lot about filing complaints with the TCEQ is Sharon Wilson, known in some circles as the “,” who works with Earthworks in Texas to monitor methane emissions and other pollution on the ground. Wilson estimates that she and her colleagues have filed more than 400 complaints with the agency since 2014. She guessed that just a sliver of the complaints she has made have resulted in enforcement actions from the TCEQ.
If the bill is made into law, Wilson said, it would impact not only her and her colleagues but people around the state who are fighting to have TCEQ notice and do something about rampant pollution in their communities.“If the sites ever improved, I wouldn’t be making complaints,” Wilson said. “It is very time-consuming to go through the process of making a complaint. People are not going to go through that if the pollution stops.
The TCEQ bill is still in committee, and there’s no guarantee it will advance to become actual law. But the list of potentially disastrous environmental legislation doesn’t end there. Here’s a quick rundown of other bills on deck this session:, would ban state agencies from helping federal agencies enforce laws around oil and gas production if those federal laws contradict state laws—a move that would hamstring the EPA and other federal bodies’ ability to regulate the oil and gas industry.
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