If you had appointed me TCEQ Chairman . . .

Emergency Regulatory Relief for the State of Texas

If you had appointed me TCEQ Chairman …

I “ran” for TCEQ Chairman a few years ago as a call to action in a move that most people, including the Austin American Statesman, poked fun of. My reputation is not of interest to me. Trying to help my State, its businesses, and the environment is.

TCEQ and businesses in my opinion were, and still are in my opinion, spending too much money and resources on unnecessarily complicated regulations and time-consuming adminstrative exercises. Simplification is needed. Here is the speech I gave to TCEQ Commissioner’s Court (see item #23). Here is the written proposal. I was relieved to not get the position, but disappointed that my call for simplification and reducing regulatory costs was not of interest to business and political leaders at the time.

Next week I would declare “Emergency Regulatory Relief” for all non-essential 30 TAC and permit provisions.

Because of the current crisis, I would convene an emergency Commissioner’s session on Monday and work with staff, EPA, companies, and environmental interests to determine what requirements were “essential” during this crisis. All other requirements would be suspended. Money is need by companies for more pressing matters—mostly, the health and financial welfare of their employees. Companies also need to re-focus their limited time and resources on critical environmental efforts to help prevent a major event from occurring.

I will pray for our current TCEQ leaders. They are more than capable. I’m no longer willing to serve in this position because I feel called elsewhere—mostly in the direction of regulatory simplification via artificial intelligence.

Time for courage. Time for action. All will be well. All is well.

@misc{anderson_2020_if_you_had_appointed_me_tceq_chairman,
  author = {Jed Anderson},
  title  = {If you had appointed me TCEQ Chairman . . .},
  year   = {2020},
  url    = {https://jedanderson.org/posts/if-you-had-appointed-me-tceq-chairman},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-05-13}
}

Anderson, J. (2020). If you had appointed me TCEQ Chairman . . .. Retrieved from https://jedanderson.org/posts/if-you-had-appointed-me-tceq-chairman

Anderson, Jed. "If you had appointed me TCEQ Chairman . . .." Jed Anderson, March 21, 2020, https://jedanderson.org/posts/if-you-had-appointed-me-tceq-chairman.