Texas refiners in Senate spotlight
Hearing to focus on Bush plan to ease emissions requirements

July 13, 2002, 11:59PM

By KAREN MASTERSON
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Glenn Alexander's health clinic sits along gasoline alley, the string of refineries huddled along the Texas Gulf Coast where a quarter of the nation's crude oil is processed.

Chemicals belching from stacks within walking distance of Alexander's clinic cause many of his patients' respiratory and skin disorders, he contends, although an official at one of the plants expressed surprise Friday at the number of health problems surfacing in the neighborhood.

What is not in dispute is that Port Arthur residents breathe some of the dirtiest air in the nation and have been powerless to do much about it.

In the 10 years Alexander, a pediatric nurse practioner, has run the clinic, he has seen an increasing number of children in need of inhalers and skin ointments. And he fears a new Bush administration policy to ease refinery emission requirements could make conditions worse.

On Tuesday, Port Arthur's pollution problems will be aired on Capitol Hill as a Senate panel considers President Bush's plan to ease the nation's Clean Air Act emissions requirements.

Hilton Kelley, a Port Arthur activist, will testify at the hearing, which was called by Democrats seeking to capitalize on one of their hottest political issues for November's elections: Bush's perceived weakness on the environment.

The hearing will explore whether Bush's plan will worsen already heavily polluted air in and around major metropolitan areas such as Houston, where air quality already fails to meet safety standards.

Also to be considered are questions about the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement of clean air laws since Bush took office, and whether oil refineries have illegally exceeded allowable emissions.

Kelley hopes the national exposure will boost his case against Premcor, an oil company with a large refinery in Port Arthur that processes roughly 240,000 barrels of crude oil a day. He has launched a citizen challenge against the plant's permit application for emissions increases.

Like many Texas refiners, Premcor's Port Arthur plant has already spewed tons of unauthorized emissions, according to recent data from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the state environmental agency.

The so-called "upsets" are considered accidental by the state and don't count as part as of a plant's annual pollution reports. But environmentalists and some state officials say the pollutants in the air exceed the amount refiners admit to.

"I'm not sure each company has done that as scrupulously as they should have, because we've seen more emissions than we would have expected," said Harry Pruett, a TNRCC manager.

Premcor has applied for a permit to emit as much as 500 additional tons of pollution at the Port Arthur plant in order to meet federal requirements to radically reduce sulfur in gasoline by 2004.

The EPA expects the sulfur-reduction program to eliminate about 2 million tons of vehicle exhaust emissions annually by 2020.

"Ironically, we have a citizen opposed to a project to produce cleaner fuel," said Morris Carter, health and safety manager at Premcor's Port Arthur plant.

Industry officials say many refiners investing in machines needed to reduce sulfur in gasoline may face additional requirements under the Clean Air Act.

A provision of that environmental law, called new source review, requires refiners to invest in the cleanest technology available when expanding a facility. And if plants are located where the air quality is already poor, refiners must buy pollution credits to increase emissions.

The double whammy is unfair and too expensive, said one industry official.

"Anything we do could be seized upon by a regulator as a triggering of the new source review," said Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. "We have a regulatory blizzard."

He said the industry -- with 146 U.S. oil refineries processing more than 16 million barrels of crude oil a day -- sent representatives to the Bush administration last year to argue that the new source review was making it more difficult to meet sulfur-reduction requirements.

"We've been asked to produce these products for the public good and the environment," Slaughter said. "It's very unfortunate when facilities are put in a Catch-22 situation."

The administration agreed. It intends to modify the way the new source review applies to refineries that increase capacity in conjunction with meeting existing federal requirements. That change is expected to make it more difficult for citizens such as Kelley to challenge expansion permits.

"The final rule is to encourage pollution prevention projects," said EPA spokesman Dave Ryan. He was not certain when the modification would take effect.

But Kelley, a Hollywood stuntman who recently returned to his hometown of Port Arthur, sees it differently.

He said if the refineries in his community are going to increase emissions for the greater good of the nation, the government should make sure those emissions are less hazardous to the people living near the refineries.

Kelley came away from a trip to Washington last year disappointed because he said his congressman, Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson, had sided with oil companies. Lampson had worked with refineries to fend off an EPA plan that would have made it more difficult and costly for plant emissions to increase.

But Lampson said the issues are complex and Kelley had not been specific enough: "It's difficult to help him, because he has not been clear."

Lampson's chief of staff, Tom Combs, said he understood Kelley's concerns but that many needed to be addressed by local officials.

"It's a rough life living right next to the plants, no doubt about it," Combs said. "If they (Kelley and a Beaumont activist) want the congressman to look at the Premcor permit, I know he will."

Premcor's expansion permit would boost its annual official emissions of 12,000 tons by as much as 4 percent.

"Enough is enough, already," Kelley said of the pollution in his community. "We have people with severe skin conditions and upper respiratory problems. We are more vulnerable to kidney and liver disease. And sulfur dioxide in the air affects the nervous system, which may explain why we have so many cases of dyslexia and a high (student) dropout rate."

Kelley's strategy is to hold the permit hostage through legal challenges, hoping to pressure Premcor into a good-neighbor agreement that would include an investment in cleaner technologies, a reduction of overall emissions and the opening of a free health clinic for area residents.

Kelley said Premcor has not agreed to his demands.

Company official Carter, however, said Friday that Premcor is open to contributing to a health facility if the state determines there's a need and other area refineries pitch in.

He said Premcor is trying to be a good neighbor.

The Port Arthur plant has already significantly reduced its pollution output since Premcor took over the facility in 1995, when emissions were 23,000 tons annually, he said.

Texas refineries have a national reputation for being heavy polluters and resisting expensive environmental upgrades. According to a 2000 analysis done by the Los Angeles Times, Houston-area facilities emitted five times more smog-forming pollutants in 1998 than comparably sized Southern California plants.

The report challenged Bush, as he was campaigning for the presidency, to explain his environmental record as Texas governor.

According to the report, California refineries had upgraded with cleaner technologies as they became available, in part because of political pressure and tough regulations.

Democrats and environmentalists say the Bush administration's plan to modify the new source review would substantially weaken the landmark Clean Air Act by gutting an important enforcement mechanism.

Party leaders hope the issue will tap public fear of global warming and climate change and undermine Bush's coattail effect in this year's midterm elections, when Democrats will be trying to seize control of the House and maintain control of the Senate.

The Senate hearing, which is being held jointly by the judiciary and environmental committees, will offer insight into the complex issues that surround refineries.

And it will give activists a national spotlight to talk about the environment as a social justice issue.

"Premcor is the Darth Vader of refiners," said Denny Larson, coordinator of the Refinery Reform Campaign, a California-based nonprofit group.

He said companies like Premcor, which produce generic gasoline, escape the national shame campaigns that make such brand-name refiners as Shell and Exxon Mobil vulnerable to consumer pressures. One of Premcor's Illinois refineries was shut down last year after paying $6.25 million for violations of several environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act.

Carter said Larson's characterization was unfair and inaccurate. "We're not perfect; we have equipment breakdowns from time to time," causing accidental emissions, he said, adding that the company adheres to new source review requirements.

Democrats have asked prominent national figures to testify Tuesday against the administration's plan. They include Eric Schaeffer, a former EPA official who quit the agency earlier this year in protest of the plan.

Committee Republicans have their own guest list: industry experts and scientists who see merit in the Bush plan, including Slaughter of the petrochemical association. Also to testify are administration officials from the EPA and Justice Department.

Kelley's testimony is expected to be less technical than that of his fellow witnesses. He will tell senators that he returned to his hometown for one main reason: to free Port Arthur of the soot, smog and stench that discolored his childhood.

And he will speak for Alexander and the children who frequent his Port Arthur clinic.

"Many of the respiratory problems come from irritants in the air that they breathe," Alexander said. "It's as simple as that."

STAYED TUNED FOR THE US SENATE HEARING - 10 AM - TUES. JULY 16

MORE INFO ON PORT ARTHUR AND THE NATIONAL BATTLE FOR REFINERY REFORM AT : www.refineryreform.org

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