80th Legislative Session on environment a dark comedy
by Jane Dale Owen, May 2007
The 80th legislative session is playing out like a dark comedy as the senators and representatives consider bills on toxic pollution and global warming.
In the first act, there’s hope. Representatives from environmental organizations conduct workshops and send information to the state capitol about global warming and toxic pollution issues and solutions. A few senators and representatives see the bigger, long-term picture and write bills that offer solutions.
In the second act, the suspense grows and the audience cheers as more than a dozen bills to reduce toxic pollution and several bills to address Texas’ contribution to global warming are considered in this, the 80th Legislative Session. Industry lobbyists are countering with information about protecting the economy and the need for more energy. Many people in the audience hold their breath with anticipation of cleaner air and water, and the possibility that action will be taken to help prevent the predicted disasters of global warming.
In act three, the curtain opens to a gloomy scene of thick, dark, ominous clouds as the bills to protect the environment are killed or stalled in committee. And then a twist, a bit of levity, occurs for the finale. The on-stage narrator reads from the front page of the May 9 issue of the Houston Chronicle: “The Texas House voted by a wide margin, Tuesday, to temporarily save motorists 20 cents a gallon every time they fuel up. It’s called a gas-tax vacation.” The only response from opposing senators is “Oh no, you can’t do that. We need those taxes to build more roads.”
The audience breaks into laughter. As the crowd leaves the theater, we hear one person say, “What a wild and crazy ending . . . tax-free gas when they were facing global warming.” Another says, “And the then the other guys against the bill say, ‘No, you can’t do that. We need more roads.’ What a riot.”
Owen, a Houstonian, is president of Citizens League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN). She is granddaughter of Robert Lee Blaffer, co-founder of Humble Oil, and the only nonscientist board member of the Federation of American Scientists.
