Despite "the old stereotype of Texas being this dirty oil state," the reality is, according to Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), "that's not anywhere close to the truth. We consider our state to be on the cutting edge as far as protecting the environment, protecting public health and driving the economy forward, and able to do all three of those things at the same time."
Baker asserted that "despite what you might read in the paper, the TCEQ and the EPA work quite closely together on a regular basis."
"Our industry is committed to working proactively with the TCEQ and the EPA to ensure the environmental stewardship of our industry," he said, speaking as a member of an environmental and regulatory virtual panel at the Gulf Coast Industry Forum presented by the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region.
Ken McQueen, administrator of EPA's Region 6, echoed his co-panelist's sentiment of support among protective agencies and added that there is widespread cooperation to reduce emissions among industrial users in the Houston Ship Channel and the larger Houston area.
"Technology is driving us in the direction of improved emissions," McQueen said.
"As newer automobiles come onto the road, they're much more efficient and pollute less than [automobiles did] in the past."
But air emissions is "a double-edged sword," McQueen noted.
"On one hand, you've got a decreasing threshold for air pollution, and on the other hand, you've got a growing economy, so there are more people and cars on the road," he said. "Houston should be congratulated on the progress it's been able to make, particularly over the past five or six years, in improving air quality."
Baker observed that the petrochemical industry has gotten better at reusing a lot of the products in their systems.
"Every time a product escapes the system, that's also dollars escaping the system. The more efficient the plants get at controlling that, the better it is for their margins," he said.
After the storms
With 2020 and a hurricane season that saw a record number of named storms enter the Gulf Coast region now over, co-panelist Hector Rivero, president of the Texas Chemical Council (TCC), reflected on the industry's readiness to shut down chemical manufacturing sites and industrial facilities in response to emergencies.
It can take days to shut down a facility, he said.
"And while there are certain risks, during a natural disaster, what many don't understand is the greatest risk from a chemical failure can occur during a shutdown and a startup of an industrial facility," Rivero explained. Chemical manufacturing sites operate under extreme temperatures and high pressures in order to crack the molecules and create a wide variety of products that the global population demands, he added.
"Any time you go through a process that dramatically changes temperatures and pressures, the equipment is most susceptible to mechanical failure, so sites must manage the risk by following detailed procedures to safely shut down a facility," he said. "That's why it can take several days to safely shut down a site."
Plants are safest when they remain operational and idling, and are not subjected to major changes in temperatures or pressure, Rivero said.
"Our industry is committed to working proactively with the TCEQ and the EPA to ensure it is a responsible steward of the environment," he concluded.
Dennis Winkler, CEO for Winkler Public Relations, moderated the discussion.
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