Simply put, polluter immunity legislation was immensely popular among many of the biggest Texas companies, and its provisions have been widely used. As it turns out, companies affiliated with Governor Bush's contributors utilized the law's immunity provisions far more frequently than did other Texas companies. However, that same group accounted for a whopping 48 percent of all requests for immunity from violations of environmental laws . In other words, the politically active companies pushing the legislation were collectively among the worst environmental actors with the most to gain by concealing their polluting activities. But that turns out not to be the case.
Facilities conduct audits because they make sense.
Besides their unwillingness to bear the expense of environmental cleanup, polluters cited avoiding public criticism as a chief goal the bill would address. General Motors lobbyist Bud McMullen testified that his company was pushing audit privilege legislation in multiple states primarily to avoid public outcry over their environmental and manufacturing practices. The audit privilege law does not only apply to private facilities. We may view the outcomes of this legislation in two cases where public institutions attempted to shield their activities from scrutiny. We are part of that group and thought we would take an opportunity to use the same tools that other people in Texas use.