At the direction of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has for the last decade provided "compliance history" regulations that generate a score for each regulated facility in the state based generally on the number and severity of violations the facilities have faced through environmental enforcement actions. TCEQ uses these scores as a public "report card" for regulated entities, as well as in decisions regarding the issuance, renewal, amendment, modification, denial, suspension or revocation of permits, enforcement, the use of announced inspections, and participation in innovative or voluntary programs.

In response to the Sunset Advisory Commission's criticisms of the existing compliance history scoring program and at the Legislature's direction, TCEQ adopted a rule on June 27, 2012 modifying the components and formula for compliance history calculations. TCEQ, which oversees regulatory compliance for 280,000 entities, had previously used an identical objective formula for all entities across all areas. This change marks the first material change to the compliance history program since its creation in 2002.

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