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Texas to EPA: It Ain't Over [Politics]
It took little over a month for the state of Texas to formally respond to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) final disapproval of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's (TCEQ) flexible permit program.
Earlier this week, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, seeking to preserve a program lauded by Gov. Rick Perry and many private sector interests across the state.
The permit, created in 1994 under then Gov. Ann Richards, allowed companies to report multiple emissions under a single limit, rather than reporting individual emissions and risk violating the Federal Clean Air Act. Environmental groups like Public Citizen and the Lone Star Sierra Club have long criticized the program as too lax.
Regarding the suit, Gov. Perry said:
"Instead of worrying about cleaner air, the EPA seems intent upon putting the jobs of tens of thousands of hardworking Texans at risk, mainly so the EPA can impose a system it says will be easier for Washington bureaucrats to understand." [Statesman]
Currently predictions of massive disruptions among the oil and gas companies (the main opposition to the EPA's ruling) have not manifested. According to the Statesman, no industry facility has closed because the agency's disapproval. Carl Edlund, director of permitting for the EPA, stated the agency's goal was reforming the system, not dismantling the industry.
Still the larger looming issue is being framed around the state's rights and the 10th Amendment battle led by Gov. Perry, et al. Most assuredly it will be echoed when President Obama visits Austin and Houston early next month.
