Like the previous legislation, the bill seems focused on limiting the activities cases in Harris County.
From MySA:
“It surprises me a little bit because there is no history of us settling cases in opposition to the attorney general or against the wishes of the attorney general,” said Rock Owens, who heads the environmental division in the Harris County Attorney's office, which historically has filed the most civil environmental lawsuits in the state.
Owens said the legislation would diminish an authority local governments have had for decades to punish environmental offenders, and also make for an uneven playing field because governments cannot afford to pay private attorneys on an hourly basis like the companies they sue.
While Harris County has been filing environmental cases for a long time, it only recently began recruiting outside counsel. Six cases have been assigned to private firms.
Not surprisingly, the Texas Association of Business is pushing these laws:
The powerful Texas Association of Business supports the bills, saying local government lawsuits have the potential to harm economic development statewide if left unchecked.
“These lawsuits do nothing but demand dollars from companies,” said Stephen Minick, vice president of governmental affairs for the TAB. “To have the county come in and attract money from these companies who are doing everything the state and federal government have asked them to do just seems to us to not be in the public interest.”
Minick said that while the association does not oppose municipal and county attorneys being able to file such civil cases, it believes that lawsuits seeking “absurd demands” for penalties “that the state would never pursue” actually harm a company's ability to help pay for cleanup and may deter other companies from buying and redeveloping contaminated land.
The Harris County Judge disagrees.
The conflict seems to stem from an ongoing conflict involving an old dumping ground dating back to 1965.
I wonder if this is also a way for the more conservative state government to restrict the power of the more liberal metropolitan areas in the state. This seems to be a trend.
