Why do we need to clean the air?
In Texas and across the nation, air pollution is a problem. Many
cities and communities in the eastern half of Texas, along with El
Paso, are not meeting the air quality standards that have been
established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA). Other cities in the eastern region of our state are on the
verge of failing to meet these EPA standards.
Everyday activities, such as driving a vehicle and operating
industrial equipment, contribute to the creation of two types of
pollutants—nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds
(VOCs). These pollutants combine readily in hot, stagnant air to
form ground-level ozone, which, in high concentrations,
can cause shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, headaches,
nausea, and throat and lung irritation.
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What is the TERP?
The Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) was established by the
77th Texas Legislature in 2001, through enactment of
Senate Bill (SB) 5 
. The TERP includes a number of voluntary
financial incentive programs, as well as other assistance programs,
to help improve the air quality in Texas.
The goals of the TERP, as set forth in SB5, are to:
- assure that the air in this state is safe to breathe and meets
minimum federal standards established under the Federal Clean Air
Act (42 U.S.C. section 7407);
- develop multipollutant approaches to solving the state’s
environmental problems; and
- adequately fund research and development that will make the
state a leader in new technologies that can solve its environmental
problems while creating new business and industry in the
state.
In addition to these general goals, a primary purpose of the
TERP is to replace, through voluntary incentive programs, the
reductions in emissions of oxides of nitrogen that would have been
achieved through two mandatory measures that SB5 directed the TCEQ
to remove from the State
Implementation Plan (SIP) for the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW)
and Houston-Galveston (HGA) ozone nonattainment areas. Those
reductions totaled 35.2 tons per day (tpd), to be achieved in 2007.
The two strategies that were removed were:
- a limit on the use of construction and industrial equipment
from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and
- a requirement that the owners and operators of diesel-powered
construction, industrial, commercial, and lawn and garden equipment
50 hp and above replace their affected equipment with newer Tier 2
and Tier 3 equipment within certain designated deadlines.
It was also envisioned that TERP incentives could be used to
achieve up to an additional 20 tpd of NOx
reductions, out of 56 tpd of reductions remaining to be identified
in the SIP for the HGA area.
Incentive funding was also expected to be available to help
achieve reductions in counties located in the other two
nonattainment areas (Beaumont–Port Arthur and El Paso County)
and in designated near-nonattainment areas, where air quality is
approaching nonattainment levels.
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What programs are included in the TERP?
The TERP includes a number of new financial-incentive and
assistance programs intended to address the goals of the plan.
These programs are administered by a number of different state
agencies, and address various aspects of the plan.
- Emissions
Reduction Incentive Grants Program
The Emissions Reduction Incentive
Grants Program is administered by the TCEQ. The program provides
grants to eligible projects in affected counties to offset the
incremental cost associated with the activities to reduce emissions
of NOx from high-emitting mobile diesel
sources in nonattainment areas and other affected counties of the
state.
- Rebate Grants
Program
The Rebate Grants Program is a
simplified application process under the Emissions Reduction
Incentive Grants Program. Rebate grants are only available for
diesel on-road and non-road replacement and repower projects. In
addition, part of the funds allocated to the Rebate Grants Program
will be set aside for applications from entities that qualify as a
Small Business under the TERP Guidelines for Emissions Reduction
Grants. Thus, small businesses are encouraged to apply.
- New Technology
Research and Development Program
The New Technology Research and
Development Program (NTRD) provides financial incentives to
encourage and support research, development, and commercialization
of technologies that reduce pollution in Texas through the issuance
of state funded grants. The Texas Environmental Research Consortium
(TERC), a non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas , will be
administering the NTRD Program during the 2006 and 2007 fiscal
years under a contract with the TCEQ.
- Clean School
Bus Program
Health and Safety Code 390.002
requires the TCEQ to establish and administer a clean school bus
program. Grants fund projects to help reduce the exposure of school
children to diesel exhaust from school buses. Projects may include
diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filters, and
emissions-reducing add-on equipment.
- Small Business
Program
The Small Business Grants Program
helps small businesses and others participate in the TCEQ’s
incentive program. The program is open to those who operate only a
limited number of eligible vehicles and equipment.
- Heavy-Duty Motor
Vehicle Purchase or Lease Incentive Program
The Heavy-Duty Motor Vehicle Purchase
or Lease Incentive Program is a statewide program also administered
by the TCEQ. Under this program, the TCEQ may reimburse a purchaser
or lessee of a new on-road heavy-duty (over 10,000-lb.) vehicle for
incremental costs of purchasing or leasing the vehicle in lieu of a
higher-emitting diesel-powered vehicle. The vehicle being purchased
or leased must be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to meet certain designated lower emissions standards
for NOx.
- Light-Duty Motor
Vehicle Purchase or Lease Incentive Program
The Light-Duty Motor Vehicle Purchase
or Lease Incentive (LDPLI) Program is a statewide program to
provide financial incentives (rebates) for the purchase or lease of
an eligible new car and light truck, model year 2003 or newer. To
be eligible, the vehicles must meet the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s Tier 2 Bin 4 or cleaner NOx emissions
standards and must have been purchased or leased after August 1,
2002. The rebates are subject to available funding.
The incentive program is administered by the Texas Comptroller of
Public Accounts.
The Comptroller is to establish a program to administer the
application for and payment of the incentives for eligible
vehicles. The Comptroller must track the incentives and report to
the TCEQ on the status of the program.
In addition, other agencies and vehicle manufacturers are
responsible for assisting the Comptroller with parts of the
program, including:
-
Manufacturers’ Report and List of Eligible Motor
Vehicles. Not later than July 1 of each year, manufacturers
must provide to the TCEQ a list of new vehicle models that the
manufacturer intends to sell in the state during that model year
that meet the incentive emissions standards. On August 1 of each
year, the TCEQ is to publish and provide to the Comptroller a list
of motor vehicles that qualify for the incentive.
- Low-Emissions Vehicle Insignia for Certain Motor
Vehicles. At the time of registration or re-registration, TxDOT
is to issue a specially designed “low-emissions vehicle”
insignia for a motor vehicle that meets the qualifications for the
incentive program. The TCEQ sponsored a contest in the state’s
public schools to select a student design for the
insignia—
-
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- Energy Efficiency
Programs
Texas Building Energy
Performance Standards
To achieve energy conservation in
residential construction, the TERP included adoption of the
energy-efficiency chapter of the International Residential Code as
the energy code in Texas for single-family residential
construction. For all other residential, commercial, and industrial
construction, the International Energy Conservation Code was
adopted as the energy code for use in Texas.
The Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas Engineering
Experiment Station of the Texas A&M University System is
responsible for helping municipalities and counties determine the
relative impacts of local amendments to the codes, and to report to
the TCEQ on the status and effect of the local codes.
Energy
Efficiency Programs in Certain Political
Subdivisions
Under the TERP, affected counties and
political subdivisions, other than a school district, in a
nonattainment area or in an affected county are asked to implement
energy-efficiency measures and to establish a goal to reduce the
electric consumption by the political subdivision by five percent
each year for five years, beginning January 1, 2002.
Affected political subdivisions are to report annually to the
Texas Comptroller’s State Energy Conservation Office (SECO)
regarding the political subdivision’s efforts and progress.
SECO is to provide assistance and information to political
subdivisions to help in meeting the goals of the program.
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