Of course the EPA would go after Texas. It's one of the largest states in the union and a state where many businesses are fleeing to.
EDITORIAL: Federal government is out of bounds in its attempt to circumvent state environmental laws
Lost in the holiday shuffle was the latest chapter in the battle
between the state of Texas and its environmental arm, the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality, and the federal government’s
Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA won the latest round last
week when the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals failed to issue a
stay that would have stopped the EPA from enforcing a new
permitting system to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the
states.
In the original Clean Air Act, passed in 1972, the job of
preventing pollutions is “the primary responsibility of States and
local governments,” not the federal government. Texas complied with
the law by establishing the forerunner of the TCEQ, and issues
permits under state law. Texas and other states issue flexible
permits, which set pollution limits on an entire facility, not just
a single operating unit in the facility. When the Obama
Administration took over in 2009, the EPA wasted little time in
formally disapproving the permit system despite the original intent
of the Clean Air Act.
Texas, under the leadership of Attorney General Greg Abbott, has
been battling the EPA ever since. The next round in the fight came
last year with the EPA’s “endangerment” ruling that classified,
without the consent of Congress, carbon dioxide as a harmful
pollutant. Like many other states, Texas does not deem so-called
greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide as pollutants. But the EPA
singled out Texas, and Texas alone, by announcing it was taking
over the entire permitting process.
Abbott filed a lawsuit challenging the action, but the appeals
court’s failure to issue a stay means the EPA runs the permitting
process in Texas pending the outcome of the suit.
