Perry to EPA: "Don't Mess with Texas"

Last week, Gov. Rick Perry fired off a letter to President Obama, urging him to reconsider allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to seize control over Texas’ air quality program.

The EPA accused the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality of violating the Clean Air Act through an industry-friendly permitting process that fails to adequately enforce federal emissions standards.

Perry argued that a federal intervention is unwarranted, due primarily to Texas’ marked improvements in air quality and the potential negative impact federal regulation could have on job growth.

“The air Texans breathe today is cleaner than it was in 2000,” Perry said in his letter. “As Texas added much of the nation's job, population and economic growth, the Texas clean air program achieved a 22 percent reduction in ozone and a 46 percent decrease in NOX emissions, compared to a 27 percent reduction in national NOX levels between 2000 and 2008.”

However, Neil Carman of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, suggested that those numbers might not tell the whole story, telling the Houston Chronicle, “the problem with the comparison of Texas to the rest of the nation is Texas has so much pollution. You can have a significant reduction and still be the most polluted.”

The Sierra Club is now threatening to file suit against the EPA for not stepping in and enforcing the Clean Air Act more expeditiously in Texas.

Meanwhile, the TCEQ, headed by three Perry appointees, has been battered and bruised in the media of late, and is currently under review by the Sunset Advisory Commission, with public testimony on the agency slated for December 2010.

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By adam longley in News on June 3, 2010 2:37 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

rebuilt-transmissions

Wow! People don't seem to care about the environment any more and then they wonder why the earth is falling apart.

whoooo

Perry, isn't your pollution what is messing with Texas?

bcdouglas

Perry, go f. yourself. Dumbass

seth

Perry ought to just turn air quality control over to BP or one of the other energy producers. Why does the government always have to meddle with job creation?

Seth

johnrambo

Seth,

How short-sighted of you to suggest that Perry should turn over air quality control to BP. How bad would that piss off the stereotypical Texas voters that Perry had dealings with an international company with the word "British" in the title?? A similar, parallel if you will, maneuver would be to hand over air quality control to a local company like C3. Much like BP, they promise to deliver the goods(Sonic Youth, White Stripes, Lily Allen) but when things go haywire, the clearly have no back-up strategy to fix the problem.

Word on the street has it that if the Eagles cancel that Charles Attel is going to raffle off the time slot on the main stage to the highest bidder of all the local bands(I'm assuming this would be Best Fwends due to their lucrative Bartles and James endorsement in England), or at least that is what I overheard him say to one of his frat buddies at Cain and Abel's last weekend.

JR.