Houston Air Quality: The Interplay Between Statistics, Policy, and Politics

• Activity Number: 486
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Author(s): Katherine Bennett Ensor*+
• Companies: Rice University
• Keywords: policy ; air quality

Abstract

Houston, the fourth largest city in the nation, is home to one of the world's largest petrochemical industries and a port of key national importance. Houston also is blessed with a tropical climate and a highly mobile population. These factors lead to the perfect storm for challenging air quality issues. Houston challenges are well known at the local, state and national level but to what extent is policy and politics informed by solid statistics. In 2005, Mayor Bill White commissioned a task force that identified a suite of pollutants impacting health of the Houston community. In this talk, I will highlight key historical challenges for improving air quality in Houston, while maintaining the successful industries that form a base for the Houston economy, and the important role statistics has played or should have played in addressing these challenges.