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In climate politics, Texas aims to be the anti-California
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Nov 07, 2010 11:25am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Chicago Tribune |
| News Date | Sunday, November 7, 2010 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The state has filed seven lawsuits against the EPA, and its members of Congress want to check the EPA's efforts to curb greenhouse gases. 'At times they're their own country,' one observer says.
By Neela Banerjee, Tribune Washington Bureau
November 7, 2010
Reporting from Washington —
For decades, California has set the pace for the country on air pollution and climate change, adopting ever-higher standards for controlling auto emissions and, more recently, greenhouse gases that scientists say have led to global warming.
Now, California's dominance is being challenged — under attack from another mega-state that wants to displace California by calling for a freeze of the status quo instead of a move toward tighter controls.
In effect, Texas is staking out a role as the anti-California.
With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, powerful Texans such as Rep. Joe L. Barton of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have vowed to check the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to use its existing authority to curtail greenhouse gases.
An even more ambitious challenge is coming directly from the Texas state government and leading Texas politicians. State Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, with the support of Republican Gov. Rick Perry, has filed seven lawsuits against the EPA in the last nine months.
In some ways, Texas' attack was bound to be bigger and bolder than it might have been from other states. After all, Texans proudly trace their lineage back to the defiant stand of Texas patriots at the Alamo and the days when Texas was an independent republic under the Lone Star flag.
"At times, they're their own country," said Bill Becker, executive director of the National Assn. of Clean Air Agencies, a group of state environmental regulators. "They feel strongly, politically, that this is an issue that shouldn't pertain to them and they would like to proceed on their own terms." |
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