Trainwreck (Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission or TNRCC nickname)

The Texas Air Control Board (1965-1993) and the Texas Water Commission (1985-1993) were consolidated in 1993 to form the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC). “TNRCC” was officially pronounced “ten-rack,” but the agency almost immediately was dubbed “trainwreck.”
 
The “trainwreck” nickname was so disastrous and widespread that the agency was renamed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in 2002.
 
   
Wikipedia: Texas Commission on Enviromental Qualtiy
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental agency for the U.S. state of Texas. The commission is headquartered at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin.
 
The agency was formed by act of the Texas Legislature in 1993 by consolidating the Texas Air Control Board (1965–1993) and Texas Water Commission (1985–1993) with the aim of increasing efficiency in enforcement of environmental laws, statutes, and regulations. They have come under fire in recent years for allowing fracking companies (hydraulic fracturing) to drill for gas within city limits which encompasses mostly residential areas. The TCEQ has been accused of derelict of duty, conflict of interest, and kickbacks, regarding shale gas and other air, land, water, and human risks. Shale gas emissions have placed Dallas and Houston in the top ten most polluted cities category. Originally known as the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, it acquired its present name in 2002.
   
1 June 1995, Lockhart (TX) Post-Register, “City holds wastewater workshop plant ‘a necessity,’ least painful method of financing is only remaining question” by Jim Liddell, pg. 1, col. 6:
The other is Texas’ homegrown EPA-type agency, the Texas Natural Resouce and Conservation Commission (TNRCC), an acronym reportedly rendered among city managers throughout Texas as “Trainwreck,” a nickname supposedly earned by the agency as a result of the condition in which many Texas cities’ environmental plans are left after this commission has run its administrative review on them.
 
Google Books
Practicing Texas Politics:
A brief survey (7th edition)
By Lyle C. Brown
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
2002
Pg. 224:
Air and Water
Coordination of the Lone Star State’s environmental policies did not occur until 1993, with creation of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC). This agency is called “Train Wreck” by some critics.
   
Google Books
Texas Politics (11th edition)
Edited by Charldean Newell, David F. Prindle, James W. Riddlesperger and Richard H. Kraemer
Belmont, CA : Wadsworth Cengage Learning
2009
Pg. 458:
TNRCC (called “ten-rack” or sometimes “trainwreck”) was sometimes heavy-handed in the way it regulated Texas communities to force compliance with the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the national policy.
 
Google Books
Stupid Texas: Idiots in the Lone Star State
By Leland Gregory
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Pub.
2010
Pg. 103:
A Rose By Any Other Name
The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, tired of all the jokes made at the expense of its acronym, TNRCC, which was traditionally pronounced “train wreck,” changed its name to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, effective September 1, 2002.
 
Texas Observer
White Stallion Hires a Black Knight
An embattled coal company hires former TCEQ boss
by Forrest Wilder
Published on: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Every single former head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (formerly TNRCC, a.k.a. “Trainwreck”) in the last 16 years has gone on to work for industry, either as a lobbyist, an attorney, or both. They really do keep that revolving door spinning.
   
Austin (TX) Chronicle
Environmental Cage Match
After a history of pulling its punches, is the EPA finally forcing TCEQ to clean up the Texas air?
By Katherine Gregor, Fri., May 28, 2010
(...)
TCEQ’s lax environmental protection has enjoyed bipartisan political indulgence in Texas. (The agency was formerly the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission – a name suggestive of its economic development roots; it was also known colloquially, in a play on its initials – TNRCC - as “Train Wreck.”)
   
New York (NY) Times—Five Thirty Eight Blog
May 19, 2012, 4:39 pm
The Most Powerful Special Interest in Washington: The Acronym
By MICAH COHEN
(...)
COMMENTS
betsytxmx
New Mexico
Poorly-chosen/accidentally awful acronyms can be great fun. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission quickly became aptly known as, “Trainwreck” from the acronym TNRCC.
May 28, 2012 at 10:32 a.m.