TCEQ: recommendations to improve accountability
tschuetzThe Sunset Advisory Commission is tasked with evaluating the efficiency of over 130 Texas state agencies. A November 2022 news article points out that the group has not reviewed TCEQ's operations for over a decade (Douglas & Martinez 2022). The article also summarizes the Sunset Advisory's recommendations to improve regulation of polluting industries in Texas:
- suspending a company's compliance history after major accidents (complicating approval of future permits)
- increasing of non-compliance penalties from $25,000 per day to $40,000 per day
- increasing the notice for public hearings and possbility to submit comments up to 36 hours after the hearing
Read more in the Sunset Advisory Commissions 2022–23 staff report.
TCEQ's mission and scope
tschuetz"TCEQ regulates air, water and land pollution and had a $429 million budget in 2021; it oversees more than 250,000 permits ranging from small-scale landscape irrigation to major petrochemical plants." (Douglas & Martinez 2022).
"TCEQ Commissioner Jon Niermann said the agency’s permitting decisions could not be racist because the TCEQ does not choose the location of industrial facilities." (Douglas & Martinez 2022)
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xiaoxThe publisher is Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement. The article is initial contribution by Jean-Marc Biquet and refer to Andrea Binder.
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xiaoxNGO report, and Revues.org which is a platform for journals in the humanities and social sciences run by the CLEO.
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xiaoxThe report collect the data after the Haiti's earthquake and epidemic, most reference data is between the 2011 to 2013. It is found many people in Haiti is still live in tents or under tarpaulins. The problem of emergency or reconsttuctions is come out.
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xiaoxIt descripts the situation and problems when face the cholera epidemic. The serious problem of lacking water, hygiene and sanitation forced MSF have to take charging. The United Nations cluster system is not flexible to respond in a constantly changing environment and emergency relief. In addtion, the report shows the failure of the international promises is not match the expectation of Haitian people. It addressd to the success or failure of Humanitarian discourse is influenced by an important point which is management. The capacity deliver and the intergrity mangament can promoting the system and made a success humanitarian operation.
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xiaoxThe report applied some other goverment research reports, organisation's research article, interview and telephone interview. It can shows the problem of the organisation or system after the disaster. Processing analysation and summary, it can help the organisation or system to promote and develop. The inadequate reponse for Haiti's disasters shows faliure of the aid system. However, the report shows the entire system cannot be condemn by a single case, and also there are two disasters happened in Haiti. The example of similar situation of facing the tsunami in Sri Lanka before the cluster system is built, in contrast, the cluster approach is more flexible as an informal selection mechanism during the Haiti earthquake response. The report have technical professionals to offer more reliable and more reference value.
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xiaoxThe report brings humanitarian practitioners and acedemics to thinking, and improve the system working, management, coordination and respect to the local situations. The report also encourage to review the other problem, such as transparency of commondity traders to prevent the corruptions. The criticism in the report push organisations and government to solve the problem and improve.