State limits on local autonomy have been in the news all year - mostly in the legislature - but now the judiciary weighs in. An industry group wants Houston's clean air ordinance declared unconstitutional
The case is called BCCA Appeal Group Inc. v City of Houston.
- Click here for the oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court.
- A description of the case from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Case file.
- Houston’s environmental protection ordinances go to the Supreme Court.
- Some detail from the Texas Tribune: Houston Argues for Right to Regulate Pollution.
The case is called BCCA Appeal Group Inc. v City of Houston.
- Click here for the oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court.
- A description of the case from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Case file.
- Houston’s environmental protection ordinances go to the Supreme Court.
- Some detail from the Texas Tribune: Houston Argues for Right to Regulate Pollution.
Two ordinances passed by the city of Houston to regulate air pollution reflect the spirit of the Texas Clean Air Act and state environmental regulations and should be allowed to stand, lawyers for the city argued on Wednesday before the Texas Supreme Court.
The ordinances, passed in 2007 and 2008, require industrial polluters to register with the city and follow state emission guidelines, at risk of being fined. The local rules are necessary, attorney Robert Higgason argued on Houston's behalf, so the city can plug gaps in environmental enforcement left by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“The point of all this is to protect the public and the environment, to have clean air, and the TCEQ, for the Texas Clean Air Act, envisions that it be vigorously enforced,” Higgason said. “This is what the statute makes reference to — cities being allowed to enact and enforce their own ordinances to achieve the goal of the Texas Clean Air Act.”
BCCA Appeal Group, a coalition of industrial facility owners including ExxonMobil, the Dow Chemical Company and ConocoPhillips, has sued to strike down the ordinances, arguing Houston is exceeding its authority under state law.
“The Legislature has already addressed what cities can do to address this problem...and they’ve turned what should be an administrative and civil regime, that should be consistently applied, into a local criminal statute,” BCAA attorney Evan Young argued. “To convert it from something very different from what the Legislature intended degrades and erodes the meaning of the act.”
