Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Burning coal generates about 50 percent of the nation's electricity and produces air pollution that can pose a significant threat to human health and ecosystems. The Department of Energy (DOE) predicts that demand for electricity will increase nationally by 26 percent between 2007 and 2030, and DOE's Energy Information Administration projects that Texas's electricity demand will steadily increase through 2030. This increasing demand for electricity in Texas has in recent years led to proposals for 33 new coal-burning, electricity-generating units across the state. The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish national ambient air quality standards for six pollutants to protect public health and welfare. These six pollutants, also known as criteria pollutants, are carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur oxides, particulate matter, ozone, and lead. In Texas, ozone is the criteria pollutant of primary concern. States are primarily responsible for ensuring attainment and maintenance of national ambient air quality standards once EPA has established them. States submit state implementation plans to EPA for approval that provide for the attainment and maintenance of air quality standards. If the state fails to submit this plan, submits …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress is considering proposals to establish a price on greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade program that would limit overall emissions and require covered entities to hold tradable emissions permits, or allowances, for their emissions. The purpose of such a program is to raise the cost of activities that produce emissions and thereby provide an economic incentive to decrease emissions. Carbon dioxide, which results from burning fossil fuels, is the primary greenhouse gas and accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. emissions. A cap-and-trade program would increase the cost of burning fossil fuels and other activities that generate emissions and potentially raise costs for consumers. A key decision is the extent to which the government offsets these costs. For example, the government could sell the allowances and then return the revenues to covered entities or households. The government could also give away some or all of the allowances. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the value of the allowances could total $300 billion annually by 2020. Today's testimony provides preliminary results of ongoing work assessing the potential effects of (1) allowance allocation methods, and (2) options for distributing …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the protection of children during disaster recovery and to provide highlights of our July 2009 report entitled Hurricane Katrina: Barriers to Mental Health Services for Children Persist in Greater New Orleans, Although Federal Grants Are Helping to Address Them. The greater New Orleans area has yet to fully recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005. One issue of concern in the recovery is the availability of mental health services for children. In our report, we estimated that in 2008 about 187,000 children were living in the greater New Orleans area--which we defined as Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes. Many children in the greater New Orleans area experienced psychological trauma as a result of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, and studies have shown that such trauma can have long-lasting behavioral, psychological, and emotional effects on children. Poor children in this area may also be at additional risk, because studies have also shown that children who grow up in poverty are at risk for the development of mental health disorders. In 2007 the poverty rate for each of …