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LEAD-IN BY HOST RICHARD HANNA: At the Houston City Council Chambers Monday, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission opened its new clean air proposal to public comment and the new 55 mph speed limit was not the only item on the public's agenda. With more on the story, here's David Stiles: STORY: The new proposal is the state of Texas' plan to reduce emissions that cause public health and environmentally damaging ozone haze or smog. Mary Hentke brought her asthmatic son to the hearing and had this to say about the health affects of smog: "In that month my son developed severe asthma recurrent pneumonia as did many other children" The two main emissions that make up smog are nitrogen oxide, NOX, and volatile organic compounds or VOCs. NOX emissions come from mobile sources such as cars, trucks, off-road construction equipment and industry VOC emissions come primarily from industrial sources The new plan from the TNRCC will change the requirement for NOX reduction from 90 percent to an 80 percent reduction while increasing the requirement for VOC reduction. The idea is that the plan will 'trade-off' a relaxation of NOX reduction for an increase in VOC reduction What mix of these two emissions, NOX and VOC, that actually creates smog is unknown to the TNRCC and public interest groups. "They seem unsure of where these sources are: they don't know, you don't know, we don't know the volume of those emissions so we can't really know that a 10 percent reduction of those requirements is justified at this point." "And to try and figure out how much each you have to reduce and it is very very complicated" As well as not knowing what mix of the two emissions creates smog, Crimmins says that industry has been under-reporting VOC emissions for years: [Crimmins]: "Self-reported as they say, in other words companies tell us what they emit ..." [Stiles]: "How accurate do you think..." [Crimmins]: "It's not very accurate we have found it particularly volatile organic compounds the companies have been under-reporting their emissions by an enormous factor, 500 percent to as much as 10 to 15 times its been under-reported." Public interest groups and TNRCC both admit that the idea of a trade-off is premature because no one knows what NOX and VOC mix creates smog. So why is TNRCC changing the rule for NOX reduction? The Business Coalition for Clean Air, a coalition formed by the Greater Houston Partnership and representing Houston's largest energy companies, sued the TNRCC to reduce the requirements for NOX emissions. Crimmins of the TNRCC: "Remember all of this whole 90 to 80 percent exercise is the result of a court order, we would not be doing it otherwise." Kelly Frels of the Greater Houston Partnership says that reductions in VOC emissions can off-set an increase of NOX emissions: "We believe that it is supportable for us to control the highly volatile organic compounds through this recording process and this monitoring process and to basically substitute the highly volatile organic compound regulations so that we can have a reduction from 90 percent to 80 percent in the NOX." Frels then encourages the TNRCC to continue their examination of the NOX and VOC mix that creates smog, "We urge the TNRCC to continue to make science based decisions and to continue studies in the monitoring of the air." Up to now no one has published a complete analysis of smog formation. There are many theories and much data but there is no comprehensive analysis of how VOC and NOX emissions interact to create smog. Tune in next week for a more in depth look at the new clean air proposal. E-mail David Stiles at stiles138@yahoo.com . This story was broadcast on July 25, 2002.