News Plume

FW Weekly Reviews the State of DFW Air

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

With the Star-Telegram abandoning the idea of having an environmental reporter all together, and the de facto abandonment of environmental beat coverage at the Dallas Morning News, DFW residents are having to rely on the alternative weeklies to provide the kind of coverage they used to get in the dailies. This week, the Ft. Worth Weekly provides another example of this trend with an excellent retrospective of where DFW air quality stands after the worst ozone season since 2007. Kudos to Weekly editor Gayle Reaves for taking up the slack and committing journalism in the name of public interest. Read More

ARE WE THERE YET?

Monday, August 29, 2011

Compare and Contrast

Monday, August 08, 2011

This is the article the Dallas Morning News printed today on 2011 ozone levels. You should read it.

Then, if you haven't already, you should read the post directly below this one.

Now, decide if the DMN wrote their piece specifically to try to rebut our post, or is it independently that shallow in how it looks at the data from this year?

No mention of the one or two air plans that have been implemented between the first part of last decade and now. Or the big difference in pre-2007 numbers vs after-2007 numbers.

No mention of the flat line that has been our ozone levels in DFW since around 2007, or the roll back this year's numbers represents. Or mention that air pollution from new gas sources over the last five years is actually making planned progress impossible.

No mention of the fact that this year's Design Value is the highest since 2009, and we have more monitors out of compliance than at anytime since 2007.

No mention of what part, if any, the economic slowdown is responsible for the difference between the early oughts and now.

No mention of the phenomena of excessive heat actually leading to less ozone because of the lack of atmospheric mix, something discussed in our comments section.

No mention of the fact that the proposed TCEQ do-over air plan aimed at the old 85 ppb standard is already obsolete itself because of the severity of this summer's ozone numbers.

This summer is not following the script the TCEQ had already written in their air plan, but you wouldn't know it from reading the News

They've got their rose-colored glasses on.

Morning News Climbs on Fair Share Bandwagon

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Although they never actually use our Campaign name (maybe because their news division has done its best to ignore it), the Friday editorial makes the same case we do and calls on the state to respond to the desires of local governments to do more to cut toxic and smog-forming VOCs from the gas industry.

It also issues an important call for area elected officials to come to the July 14th TCEQ hearing in Arlington and directly request those larger cuts:

"While state regulators have sometimes seemed impervious to public comments, this opportunity is North Texas’ best shot to improve yet another lackluster air-pollution plan. If local leaders stay silent, the TCEQ will stick with the laissez-faire approach that has left our area in a smog-filled haze."

We would only argue with the "sometimes" language. For the last ten years or so, TCEQ has been remarkably consistent in always ignoring the public in North Texas when it comes to clean air plans. Still, the moment we give up challenging the Commission is the moment TCEQ will claim the public must like what it's breathing.

Belated thanks to the editorial staff and yet another plea to get the paper's Metro editors on the same page in covering local environmental stories. It's getting really tiresome to find the only coverage of clean air efforts on the opinion pages.
Read More