"Petulant, Childish, Vindictive" - TX Slashes Funding After SA Smog Study Details Fracking Impact

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AACOG released the first part of the study, an emission inventory of the Eagle Ford, on April 4. It projected a dramatic increase in air emissions by 2018 during peak ozone season, including a possible 281-percent increase in releases of volatile organic compounds, which react with nitrogen oxides to form ozone. More details are expected in the second part, a photochemical model that explains how the emissions affect San Antonio’s ozone levels.

About a week after the emission inventory was released, the Austin American-Statesman reported that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which funded the study, had slashed AACOG’s air-quality planning budget by 25 percent because an AACOG employee had made some of the draft results public. AACOG's contract with the TCEQ prohibited AACOG from releasing any results without TCEQ approval.

TCEQ spokesman Terry Clawson said the contract was breached when AACOG posted a "summary presentation" on its website. He declined to identify the person responsible for the posting, and said AACOG management was notified of the consequences soon after TCEQ decided to cut the agency's budget.

InsideClimate News and the Center for Public Integrity have been reporting on air quality problems in the Eagle Ford for the past year. The initial group of stories stemming from the investigation, published in February, showed that state regulators and politicians are more focused on protecting the industry than protecting the public. "This is among the more petulant, childish and vindictive things I've seen TCEQ do," said Al Armendariz, a former EPA regional administrator who now works for the Beyond Coal campaign at the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club. "It's cheap, it's schoolyard bullying … to go after a local government whose sole mission is to protect public health."

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http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/04/23/14622/texas-freezes-agencys-funding-after-air-pollution-data-released