Rita Beving

Rita Beving of Public Citizen recaps some of the major environmental legislation enacted — and not —- during the 88th Texas Legislature with an eye toward what may be trending in the next session in 2025. She has a 25-year history of advocating on environmental issues both professionally and as a volunteer with the Sierra Club and Clean Water Fund. Since 2013 she has worked with the national nonprofit Public Citizen as a registered lobbyist on a variety of issues. For several years Rita served alongside local officials on the North Central Texas Council of Governments' Clean Air Steering Committee to help reduce ozone as part of the State Implementation Plan. Statewide she has battled the Keystone XL and TransPecos pipelines, land farms, landfills, cement kilns, and concrete batch plants. She worked with former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and other nonprofits to defeat the permitting of more than a dozen coal plants. She was vice chair of the task force that helped develop Dallas' Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan, and she currently serves as a technical air advisor for the city's environmental commission. She is a graduate of Iowa State University and lives in the Dallas area with her husband, attorney David Griggs.