EPA To Take Over Greenhouse Gas Permits In Texas

DALLAS — The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it is taking the unprecedented step of directly issuing air permits to industries in Texas, citing the state's unwillingness to comply with greenhouse gas regulations going into effect Jan. 2.

EPA officials indicated they reluctantly were taking over Clean Air Act Permits for greenhouse gas emissions because "officials in Texas have made clear . . . they have no intention of implementing this portion of the federal air permitting program."

"EPA prefers that the state of Texas and all states remain the permitting authority for (greenhouse gas) sources," the agency said in a statement. "In the same way that EPA has worked with other states and local agencies, the agency stands ready to do the same with (Texas)."

The EPA's takeover of Texas' air permit program came on the same day the agency announced it would begin developing standards to reduce heat-trapping gases at power plants and refineries.

Together, the developments show the agency is taking a hard line on regulating the pollution blamed for global warming, even as Republicans in Congress vow to block them. Legislation to limit greenhouse gases that was backed by the Obama administration died in the Senate this year, after Republicans and some Democrats said they would not vote for a bill that could raise energy prices.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the world's second largest environmental regulatory agency after the EPA, has said it will not modify its permitting process to include greenhouse gas emissions. In a statement Thursday, the TCEQ said it is still studying the EPA's plan to take over permitting in Texas, adding that it is neither a "common sense approach nor a reasonable approach."

"The EPA cannot measure reductions in (carbon dioxide) or any other (greenhouse gas) with this new regulation, and the EPA cannot correlate this new regulation to any environmental or health benefit," the TCEQ said.

The federal agency also plans to issue greenhouse gas permits in seven other states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon and Wyoming. But those states have indicated they are revising their permitting process to comply with greenhouse gas emission regulations.

Texas, which estimated 167 projects would be affected by the new rules, stands alone in refusing to modify its permitting process. The Lone Star State has more oil refineries, chemical plants and coal-fired power plants than any other state and leads the nation in greenhouse gas emissions and industrial pollution.

Texas and the EPA have repeatedly clashed over environmental issues, a division Gov. Rick Perry used on the campaign trail as an example of Washington trampling on states' rights.

The new greenhouse gas rules go into effect Jan. 2. They require the nation's largest industries to meet more stringent greenhouse gas emissions standards in new facilities or ones that are undergoing significant modifications.

The standards were enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act and a 2009 EPA finding that the gases can pose a danger to human health.

The EPA also announced Thursday it had set a "modest pace" in developing a timeline to update pollution standards for existing power plants and oil refineries. The agency will propose standards for power plants by July and issue final standards by May 2012. It will propose standards for refineries by December 2011 and issue final standards by the following November.

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California praised the EPA for taking a "measured and reasonable step toward addressing the pollution that threatens the health and welfare of our families and children."

Scott Segal, an attorney in former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's law firm, called the timeline unrealistic and said a commitment to reduce greenhouse gases is useless without cooperation from other nations.

"By singling out the energy sector, the agency puts the nation's fragile economic recovery at risk and stifles job creation," said Segal, who represents utilities and refineries.

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Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello in Lambertville, N.J., contributed to this story.

Comments

[booker52]

10:07 AM on 12/30/2010

I am shocked I tell you, shocked, not.

[So Cal Kramer]

09:26 PM on 12/24/2010

A fair number of ex-bankers are in key positions in some well known environmental organizations, why is that?... Could it be they want to get their 'cut' of the estimated $20 trillion/year carbon market? They already have carbon derivatives similar to what they had for the subprime fiasco.

I wouldn't be surprised if Goldman Sachs was behind this. The people running that bank (and other major banks) also run our Federal Reserve and hence they run the economy and wield influence within our government. They get together in their secret meetings with other central bankers at the BIS discussing who knows what and directing and influencing world affairs.

THIS is why we I believe cap-and-trade will be imposed on America.

[Phil11514]

03:27 AM on 12/27/2010

RE: "Could it be they want to get their 'cut' of the estimated $20 trillion/y­ear carbon market?"
 
NO, it COULDN'T.
 
Now, take off your tinfoil-and-coat-hanger-wire-antenna helmet.
 
And please, for your neighbors' sakes, stop screaming at the people on your TV screen. Scientific tests have actually proven that they really can't hear you.

[Bonnie Larkin]

04:07 AM on 12/24/2010

There is another HUGE source of dangerous gas emissions - other than my beloved Texas - and that is the hotair that comes out of the mouths of those that assume they know everything -
Gov Perry is right in his opinion that DC has no right to trample on OUR state rights. He has the will - and the cajones to put that marxist obama in his place - and for this alone he has the backing and support of most Texans.
Obama will not find it so easy to push us around - we have the mindset to defend ourselves.
Gov Perry has more honor - dignity - loyality - as well as a great moral compass than obama could ever dream of.

[Phil11514]

03:50 AM on 12/27/2010

 No one who rightly recognizes the reality of global anthrogenic human-induced climate change and the enormous dangers it poses, is claiming or assuming to "know everything". When the overwhelming majority of the scientific and research organizations around the entire world concurr that global human-induced climate change is real and accelerating, it's time to close your mouth, remove the steel plate from your ears that prevents any facts contrary to your fictional belief-system from being received, open your mind and recognize that there are indeed people who really do know better than you. 
 
As for the fact of the federal government having not only the RIGHT but furthermore the DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY to enforce federal laws and regulations on Texas, I suggest that you go read the Constitution of the United States of America and direct your attention to what's known as THE SUPREMACY CLAUSE.  The federal government does have the right to enforce federal regulations and to bring recalcitrant state regimes to heel.
 
I further suggest that you take a moment to recall "the late unpleasantness" as the Civil War was referred to, and the horrendous destruction that occurred the LAST time that states tried to declare that they had some "right" to ignore or reject federal regulation abd laws.
 
Obama is not in the slightest a "Marxist", nor is he even remotely "left-wing." Personally I very much doubt if you could coherently expplain the difference between a Marxist and a Methodist, or between a Socialist, a Sociologist and a Scientologist, if your life depended on it.
 
Your so-called "Beloved Texas" is the Armpit of Humanity, a thuggish regime characterized by religion-imbued imbecility, astounding ignorance, unbridled and undeserved arrogance, and contempt for the rest of Humanity. The rest of the United States and the rest of the civilized world have just about had enough of your state's persistent attempts at stonewalling much-needed CHANGE. We will not put up with your state's imbecilic and ignorance-fueled antics for much longer. You and your state will be brought to heel and forcibly made to yield.
 
This can occur legally and legislatively, or it can occur when the rest of the world finally decides it has had ennough and slaps a worldwide trade embargo on your RePUGNANT-ican State.
 
It is not at all difficult to envision a future in which Texas politicians seeking new markets for their state's products, are refused meetings with political and business leaders in other countries, and curtly told, "WHEN you demonstrate willingness to curb your voracious greenhouse-gas pollution,  THEN we will consider being willing to do business with you; until then, however, we have nothing to discuss.  Have a nice flight home, and  be sure to check out the airport gift shop on your way out of our country."

[booker52]

10:08 AM on 12/30/2010

Been smoking something you shouldn't???

[PRONESE]

07:20 PM on 12/23/2010

According to the EPA.
I breathe, therefore I pollute.
R/ PRONESE

[MadameChaillot]

07:12 PM on 12/23/2010

I feel sorry for all the normal people who live in Texas, that they would have to suffer the backwards ignorant excuses for "leadership" that run that state.

[eyecon]

06:40 PM on 12/23/2010

Cue up the feigned outrage. The crackpot Tenthers are going to be on a roll. If you listen carefully, you can hear the T-Bots coming unglued. Meanwhile, the Christianists will counter with something along the lines of "God gave us this gas." Really?

[gevan]

06:15 PM on 12/23/2010

If only Gov. Perry would promise to keep Texas air in Texas we wouldn't have to do this.