End the loophole for "grandfathered" older facilities by requiring all polluters to have permits and to meet the current standards.

End the pollution "volume discount" for big polluters.

Reform the penalty structure for pollution law violations, making it more profitable to follow the law than to violate it.

Consider the cumulative impacts of pollution in the permitting process.

Deny permits to applicants with poor environmental records. Close the loopholes in the audit/privilege/immunity law that allows companies to violate the law for years without penalty and hide the violations from the public.

Allow citizens to enforce state environmental laws when the state won't.

Perhaps the best example of the real concern of the state's pollution control agency is found in the latest meeting results from the Commissioners of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC). These commissioners were appointed by Governor Bush and come directly from the most polluting segments of our society.

In their most recent meeting last week, the commissioners they voiced a desire to adopt the federal standards as far as automobile emissions are concerned. They opted NOT to adopt the more stringent standards which California has put in place. They had letters from the the three largest auto manufactures promising that cars sold in Texas would have the same controls of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as cars sold in California. VOCs are the compounds which react with sunlight to produce smog. Here in Corpus Christi we have been lucky and have not exceeded the federal standards to the point to trigger controls and are officially "in attainment". However, we can expect several times this summer when we are advised of ozone alerts and are asked to restrict gasoline usage in such things as lawn mowers.

The efforts to reduce VOCs emissions are a step in the right direction, but the Commissioners have not gone far enough. The TNRCC's current plan does not include the California provisions for sales quotas of zero- and low-emission vehicles (the 10% mandate), nor does it address reductions in soot or smog-forming nitrogen oxides. They meet again on May 31 so we will see if they will act on the side of clean car standards.

In an article in the AUSTIN-STATESMAN last week, the writer bemoans the lack of completeness in the current TNRCC plan. The California plan calls for the reduction of small particles, or soot, from diesel engines and requires one out of every 10 automobiles to have zero-emission or low-emission designs. The TNRCC is not considering this.

Environmentalists in Texas complain that citizens of this state will lose out on the chance too buy electric cars, hybrid cars, or fuel cell-powered vehicles and Texas will lose out on the high-tech jobs associated with developing them. In California, these cars cost about $100 more than regular cars, and the trucks cost about $200 more according to Public Citizen. But the latest hybrid car seems not to be available locally and perhaps not at all in Texas.

All-in-all, Texans continue to suffer from bad air and unless something is done by the TNRCC Commissioners to correct this continuing year-by-year increases in Toxic Emissions, we will continue to be the most polluted state in the whole 50 states.