Texas Air Permits Fail Environmental Justice, Petition Alleges

Texas’ top environmental agency isn’t meeting environmental justice obligations in its air permitting processes, 13 environmental groups alleged in a petition to the EPA on Tuesday.

The petition claims that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is violating the Clean Air Act and Civil Rights Act in a “systemic refusal to conduct any environmental justice review in its air permitting program.” The groups requested that the EPA begin a State Implementation Plan Call to fulfill clean air standards and open a compliance review under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to ensure people with limited English proficiency have meaningful ...