Juanita posted a newspaper column from the Houston Chronicle on the front door this morning.

It’s about clean air.  Juanita contends there is a vacuum of leadership in the pro dirty air caucus.  That’s why industry has to pay people to say that dirty air is good.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has worked hard to earn its reputation as a lazy watchdog. But last Wednesday the agency outdid itself, performing an astounding feat of determined laxity: The three-member board voted to allow LyondellBasell Industries, Houston’s largest refinery and one of the nation’s largest emitters of benzene, to renew its 10-year state pollution permit — and to do so without the muss and fuss of a public hearing. Never mind that the city of Houston had pleaded for that hearing.

“We are proud of our thick and hazy air here in petrochemical capital of Texas.  It gives everything sort of a  yellow hue, and hazy, like they do with those Glamour Shots photos.  It makes us all look better,” she says, “with the exception of red eyes and noses that leak.  Hey, there’s a downside to everything!”

“So, when do I get my check?  I did my pro-dirty air duty, now I want my check, too,” she announces.

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