ENVIRONMENTAL HEADLINES, APRIL 7 – 13

TEXAS SENATE APPROVES $152.2 BILLION BUDGET
Houston Chronicle 4/12/07
The Texas Senate approved a two-year, $152.2 billion state budget bill today despite criticism that ranged from a charge that it starves government to a lament that growing expenditures are choking the middle class without improving the state.

METRO CEO SAYS PROPOSED BILLS WILL HURT BUSINESS
Houston Chronicle 4/11/07
At a public meeting Tuesday to explain how owners of small and disadvantaged businesses can seek work on four planned Bus Rapid Transit lines, Metro’s president and CEO, Frank Wilson, was in fine form.

PLAN TO MOVE 18 SITES TO HISTORICAL COMMISSION CRITICIZED
Houston Chronicle 4/8/07
AUSTIN – A House committee’s recommendation that 18 historic sites be transferred out of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, but that 12 others should stay, creates a hodgepodge without rhyme or reason other than politics, critics say.

HISTORIC SITES ON HOUSE TRANSFER LIST

HOUSE PUTS 2-YEAR BAN ON PRIVATE TOLL ROADS
Houston Chronicle 4/11/07
AUSTIN – Reacting to public hostility, the Texas House tentatively slapped a two-year moratorium on private company toll road projects Tuesday with a loud 134-5 vote.

BUSINESS LEADERS IN U.S. “ENERGY CAPITAL” VOTE GREEN
Reuters 4/6/07
HOUSTON – Business leaders in the oil-producing city of Houston, historically suspicious of environmental protection efforts, have endorsed California’s low emission vehicle standards, a spokeswoman for the business group said Thursday.

BP CLOUD SENDS 7 TO HOSPITAL
Galveston County Daily News 4/11/07
TEXAS CITY – Texas City officials responded Tuesday to an emergency at the BP refinery.

TCEQ APPROVES FINES TOTALING $454,250
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality 4/11/07
[I]ncluded in the total fine figure is a penalty of $157,959 against Texas Petrochemicals LP in Houston. The fines are the result of violations from investigations conducted between August 2004 and April 2006.

WHITE HOUSE PULLS NOMINATION TO TOP EPA AIR POST
Environmental News Network 4/12/07
WASHINGTON — The White House Wednesday withdrew its choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution office after he ran afoul of key U.S. lawmakers.

HOUSTON PANEL URGES ZONING ON DEVELOPMENT IN NEIGHBORHOODS
Houston Chronicle 4/8/07
Armed with a 99-cent protractor mounted atop a surveyor’s tripod, a city advisory panel ventured out recently to test some ideas that could become Houston’s first regulations on the residential building size.

REPORT: TEXAS HOUSING STILL AFFORDABLE
Houston Business Journal 4/11/07
The Texas real estate market has remained strong, as other housing markets have declined, according to a recent report.

DESPITE DOUBTS, BARGE PROJECT LIKELY A GO
Baytown Sun 4/13/007
Despite informal but passionate opposition from Baytown City Council, little can be done to stop a proposed barge terminal on Cedar Bayou across from Roseland Park.

GLOBAL WARMING THREAT FORECAST IN GALVESTON
Houston Chronicle 4/9/07
The city got troubling news last month in the form of a geological hazard map that showed a shrinking island and development in areas threatened by rising sea levels, erosion and sinking land.

CITY’S PRICE FOR LAND DOUBLES
Galveston County Daily News 4/10/07
GALVESTON – The appraisal price for a piece of city land GISD needs to buy to finish the Ball High track doubled in the past year.

GISD TO SELL UNDERUSED PROPERTIES

KABOOM! VOLS NEEDED
Fort Bend Herald and Texas Coaster 4/12/07
A dream of seeing a new playground park becomes a reality Saturday, April 21 when volunteers will gather at a 2 1/2-acre tract of land in Richmond to build it in one day.

TRUCKERS FEAR ENGINE-BRAKE RULES WILL HURT SAFETY
Houston Chronicle 4/9/07
MOUNT ENTERPRISE – Some towns pair their city limits signs with others acknowledging the local Kiwanis Club, a brag about a native celebrity or a proclamation that it’s the fill-in-the-blank capital of Texas.

AREA REMEMBERS TEXAS CITY INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT
Galveston County Daily News 4/12/07
TEXAS CITY – 60 years later, disaster survivor Fletcher Harris recalls how the Coast Guard Cutter Iris helped in the fatal blasts.