Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The Clean Air Act's noose of non-attainment is tightening around the Austin region under the newly announced federal eight-hour ozone standard, a fact that guarantees Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) will have plenty to say about clean air and the performance of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality next session.

Sure, Dallas and Houston have been under non-attainment status for a while, and the world didn't come to a crashing end. But now mid-sized regions in Texas with virtually no smokestack industries – like Austin, Waco and Tyler – are facing the same tough penalties as their big-city neighbors. That has Central Texas leaders crying foul, especially since the region voluntarily entered into an early action compact with the Environmental Protection Agency six years ago – and even submitted to the car emissions testing program years earlier than necessary– so the federal agency wouldn't lower the boom.

Now it's obvious Austin will no longer be able to avoid future sanctions. New standards announced last month– reducing the ozone standard from 80 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion – all but seal the fate of the Austin region as a non-attainment area.

Watson was at a news conference this morning to discuss the upcoming ozone season with the Central Texas Clean Air Force. Last month, Watson promoted an impending federal study, inserted by Congressman Chet Edwards, that would study the cumulative impacts of air pollution. The unspoken villain, of course, is the impending upwind Oak Grove coal-fired power plant, which could have a significant impact on Austin air quality.

"I don't think I'm just getting wrapped up in this crazy hope thing when I say that I am very hopeful that we're going to make progress on that front," Watson said of more progressive air quality measures. "But to get that done, it's going to require those of us who have been advocating to continue to keep the pressure on next session."

What form would that pressure take? Watson said it's too early to be specific. But one option used among the closely confined Eastern seaboard states – which share terrain and smog – was the creation of an Ozone Transport Commission. This type of measure, which has so far been resisted in Texas, addresses ozone impacts as a multi-state region, with efforts pinpointing and regulating specific problem polluters.

"It's too early to say exactly what we'll do," said Watson, when the concept of a Texas ozone transport commission was raised. "I will certainly have an legislative agenda on the issue, about how we deal with this change in standard, and how we continue to keep the pressure on the state agency that has the responsibility for keeping our air clean. They need to either do their job or change. So I'll be looking at any and all ideas."

Watson also doesn't mind aiming his sights at the TCEQ, which he has freely criticized for failing to do its job in the clean air arena. Watson was front and center before the commissioners to oppose the granting of the Oak Grove plant permit. He's not specific about what he intends to do, but it sounds like he wants a serious reality check.

"We have got to quit ignoring reality," Watson said. "I think, to some degree, we have suspended reality. I don't think, frankly, that we have the luxury to do that anymore. With this reduction in the ozone standard, whatever luxury that someone might have thought we had is now gone. It's over."

The Austin region's non-attainment status will be based on a three-year rolling average, either 2006-08 or, possibly, 2007-09. To meet the new ozone standard, the region would have to drop this year to 67 parts per billion. Right now, the existing plan simply allows the burgeoning region to maintain status quo. Even when the early action compact was implemented, it only reduced the ozone standard by 2 parts per billion, a gain that environmentalists say modeling shows will be erased with the Oak Grove plant.

So, in reality, Austin is all but declared a non-attainment area. Those associated with clean air efforts in Central Texas said that's complicated by the fact that EPA sets different timelines for different regions. Because the Houston region was a heavier polluter, it's timeline is now extended out to 2019 to come into compliance.

In the meantime, Austin, which had a smaller pollution problem, has a tighter deadline. All while failing to take into consideration the impact of those point sources in the state that don't have to come into compliance for years or possibly even a full decade.