Texas Loses Court Battle Against EPA

(This public domain image is from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)

It is an unquestionable fact that Texas leads all other states in the amount of pollution it dumps into our nation's air. In fact, if Texas was a country, it would be the 7th largest polluting country in the world.  And the state leads in both total pollution and pollution by greenhouse gases. The responsibility for this rests with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This Republican-dominated commission is responsible for issuing permits and controlling pollution in the state -- but it usually just rubber stamps whatever industry wants to do, including the energy producers in the state.

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new rules to rein in some of the massive amounts of greenhouse gases being dumped into the air. At that time, they asked the TCEQ to be stricter in the requirements to get a state permit, and to include greenhouse gases in those requirements. The state refused to comply, saying they had the sole authority to issue permits -- and had neither the desire nor the authority to control greenhouse gases.

To their credit, the EPA did not accept that. And since the state would not take action to meet the national standards, they decided to do it for them. The EPA took over the issuing of permits, making sure that the new pollution rules (including the greenhouse gases rules) were considered before any permits were issued. The state objected, and Attorney General Greg Abbott sued the EPA.

Last Friday, a 3-judge panel of the U.S. (D.C.) Court of Appeals ruled against Texas on a 2 to 1 vote. The court ruled the state "has failed to show how it had been injured", and had no standing to bring the case. The EPA will now be permitted to continue it monitoring of and issuance of permits in Texas (and a few other states that also didn't comply).

I wouldn't doubt the state will probably try to appeal this verdict -- either to the full D.C. Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. Although the Republicans running state government whine constantly that the state doesn't have enough money, they always seem to have the millions needed to fight for their corporate buddies.

But for right now, this is a victory -- both for the EPA, and for the people of the United States. The EPA is right. It is time for Texas to follow the rules.