Growth Management & The Environment

Toyota Eyeing Texas' Air Quality Situation Carefully

In the winter quarter, Toyota officials announced a $750 million, 2,000-employee pickup truck assembly plant in San Antonio. Not unlike recent deals made by Honda, Nissan and Hyundai in the South, the Toyota plant will likely grow to $2 billion in investment and 4,000 jobs shortyly after opening in 2006. But there's a threat to that expansion and others like it in the Lone Star State if funding to a Texas Emissions Reduction Plan isn't carried out. Texas officials say they must come up with $375 million in funding for TERP to appease the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has made it clear that Texas will fall out of federal compliance by 2007 if it does not fund TERP properly. A state legislative proposal that proponents say could help San Antonio and other markets in Texas remain in compliance with federal clean air laws passed the Texas House in May. The proposal, which includes a $225 first-time vehicle registration fee, may or may not be unconstitutional. And even if it is deemed constitutional, it might not raise enough cash to fund TERP to levels that would meet EPA approval. Toyota officials are watching the situation carefully. Officials with the automaker have said that one of the key reasons San Antonio was chosen was the fact that the Alamo City was in attainment with federal clean air standards. Those same officials said recently, though, that if San Antonio fails to remain in attainment, it will concern them greatly. If Texas fails to remain in attainment by 2007, the EPA would slam the state by freezing federal highway funds and putting in place pollution caps. Those caps would stop all new manufacturing expansions in areas of the state that reach non-attainment status.

Mobility Study Ranks South's Most Congested Urban Markets

According to its latest Urban Mobility Study, the Texas Transportation Institute says the South's roadways are getting more congested. The study maintains that the time penalty for making "rush hours" trips is greater and that the period of time that travelers might encounter traffic congestion is longer. The study also showed that the number of streets and freeways in the South that are congested is higher. The following are the most and least congested Southern metros based on annual hours of vehicular delay.

Most Congested Markets in the South

Market *Hours

1. Wash. D.C./MD/VA 84
2. Houston 75
3. Dallas/Ft. Worth 74
4. Atlanta 70
5. Miami 69
6. Orlando 66
7. Austin 61
Ft. Lauderdale 61
9. Baltimore 50
10. Charlotte 47

Source: Texas Transportation Institute. *Based on annual vehicular hours of delay.

Least Congested Markets in the South

Market *Hours

1. Brownsville 5
2. Laredo 6
Corpus Christi 6
4. Oklahoma City 12
Beaumont 12
6. Fort Myers 16
7. Tulsa 19
8. Kansas City 19
9. El Paso 21
10. Richmond 22

Source: Texas Transportation Institute. *Based on annual vehicular hours of delay.

Finally, an Alabama-Georgia Water Pact

After 13 years of on-again-and-off-again negotiations, the governments of Alabama and Georgia have finally agreed on a water use proposal that centers on how much of the resource can be used by the massive Atlanta market. The 30-year agreement sets storage requirements for lakes in north Georgia and creates new minimum flow rates for the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers in Georgia. Both rivers flow from Georgia to Alabama. Officials in Alabama have tried to negotiate a water deal in an effort to ensure water availability in the southeastern portions of the state.

While the agreement is a critical first step between the two states, it does not include Georgia's use of water from the Chattahoochee-Flint-Apalachicola river basin, one that includes Florida and many more square miles than the Coosa and Tallapoosa basin. Georgia officials are still in talks with Alabama and Florida over the use of water from the Chattahoochee-Flint-Apalachicola basin. In fact, a June 30, 2003 deadline has been set by the three states to come up with a water use formula for that basin. Over the years, Alabama and Florida have complained over how much water is being used by the Atlanta area, which is located near the source of all of the aforementioned rivers.

Texas' Air Quality Harmed by Agricultural Burning in Mexico, Central America

In April, a large mass of smoke moved into the eastern two-thirds of Texas. The smoke placed the elderly, children, those with respiratory conditions and heart disease in danger according to Texas health officials. It's not the first spring season that saw Texas' air harmed by smoke from Mexico. In 1998, the worst episode of smoke from burning occurred and it hung around for more than three weeks.

Virginia Utility Implements Huge Pollution Reduction

Under pressure from lawsuits and the EPA, Virginia-based Dominion Resources has agreed to spend $1.25 billion to reduce pollution released into the air from power plants operated by the utility in Virginia and West Virginia. The settlement is the largest in the history of the federal Clean Air Act. Dominion Resources, not to be confused with Virginia-based Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, was formally named Virginia Electric Power Company.