Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Federal regulators who ruled that Texas' often-criticized oversight of industrial air pollution is out of line with federal law are taking the first step to change the state's air-permit rules.

The Environmental Protection Agency is meeting today with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, environmentalist groups and business leaders for the first time since announcing Sept. 8 that it wants to scrap major portions of the state permit program because it doesn't comply with the Clean Air Act.

"We will continue to work with the state to resolve these issues, hopefully to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, to allow the state to continue to administer and enforce the Clean Air Act," EPA spokesman Dave Bary said.

States have some leeway in how to enforce the federal pollution law. The EPA has for years disagreed with how Texas has done that but took no action until last month.

Texas is home to more oil refineries, chemical manufacturing plants and coal-fired power plants than any other state, and it leads the nation in greenhouse-gas emissions.

TCEQ executive director Mark Vickery defends the permit rules, saying they've helped cut down on pollution.

"Now that the EPA has placed its cards on the table and we finally know what specific objections they have with our programs, we look forward to working with them to resolve outstanding issues," Vickery said in a prepared statement. "We hope the EPA will consider the actual emission reductions achieved through our state programs and will continue to build on those successes."

Several environmental groups, who have long criticized Texas pollution rules as passive and friendly to big business, are descending on Austin from around the state and country with calls for a massive overhaul of TCEQ.

"The EPA needs to bring the Texas air pollution permitting program in line with federal law," Ilan Levin, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a prepared statement. "That's going to take some time, and in the meantime EPA will need to exercise very strict oversight."

Environmental groups will ask the EPA to implement a system to penalize Texas if it doesn't enforce federally approved rules, scrutinize new state permits, halt construction on industrial plants with improper permits and recall older permits.