Texas scofflaw industrial polluters put out more than 63 million pounds of illegal air pollution in 2017 but state regulators barely issued fines for any of them. That’s according to Environment Texas Executive Director Luke Metzger, who says polluters have a loophole called ‘affirmative defense’ which means enforcement is declining.
Metzger says TCEQ levied just over a million dollars in fines when they could have fined as much as $2.3 billion.
(Photo: Shutterstock by Jim Parkin)
