This week Bayou City Waterkeeper filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court in support the right of Texans to oppose our state’s environmental permitting decisions. If left in place, an appeals court decision will limit the right of environmental advocates to participate in permitting decisions and protect their communities and ecosystems from pollution.
The amicus brief, filed alongside our partner Coastal Watch Association, supports a request for appeal filed by San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, their Waterkeeper Diane Wilson, and Texas Campaign for the Environment. This group of advocates for the Texas coast seek to overturn an appeals court decision preventing them from opposing an air permit.
After San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper and partners opposed the air quality permit filed by Max Midstream’s Seahawk Terminal – an oil storage and export terminal proposed for Point Comfort, Texas – the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality denied the parties’ right to challenge the permit despite evidence about impacts of the terminal on those who live, work, fish, and boat in the area. The significantly expanded facility would have the capacity to store over 200 million gallons of crude oil and condensate in 15 storage tanks and export it on vessels through nine marine loading docks.
A trial court overturned the decision and found that TCEQ arbitrarily denied the requests for a hearing. The district court agreed with community members’ request that this violated the law and it decided to reverse and remand the air permits to allow for a proper hearing. The Fifteenth Court of Appeals, a business-friendly court created by the State legislature in 2023, reversed the trial court and affirmed the TCEQ’s denial of the hearing request.
The TCEQ’s denial of hearing requests for air and water permits is not new. In a 2021 petition filed before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Bayou City Waterkeeper, Coastal Watch Association, and other groups pointed out that TCEQ routinely and arbitrarily limits participating in the contested case hearing process.
Bayou City Waterkeeper’s amicus brief with the Coastal Watch Association emphasizes the impact of the Fifteenth Court of Appeals decision. If allowed to stand, the decision will effectively allow TCEQ to arbitrarily deny well-grounded contested case hearing requests without consequence, enabling more harmful projects to proceed without adequate protections.
Read the brief here. Appellate lawyer Max Renea Hicks represented both organizations in preparing this brief.