Texas Files Lawsuit Against EPA Over Clean Air Initiatives

If Texas' lawsuit is unsuccessful the repercussions will be felt by all Americans at the pumps. Could this be an attempt by the Obama administration to force Americans to buy those over priced electric cars? It could be. Remember Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane Louisiana's and Texas' ability to refine oil was severely limited and as a result, as well as some speculating by traders on Wall Street, gas prices rose 42%. If gas prices were to rise again it would certainly make overpriced electric and hybrid cars look more attractive. The fact of the matter is that the only way green energy can compete is if fossil fuel prices are very high.

With a refining capacity of more than 2.5 million barrels per day, Louisiana produces more petroleum products than any State but Texas. So how much does Texas refine and produce? Well here are some quick facts about Texas' oil industry.

• Texas is the leading crude oil-producing State in the Nation (excluding Federal offshore areas, which produce more than any single State).
• The State’s signature type of crude oil, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), remains the major benchmark of crude oil in the Americas.
• Texas’s 27 petroleum refineries can process more than 4.7 million barrels of crude oil per day, and they account for more than one-fourth of total U.S. refining capacity.
• Approximately three-tenths of total U.S. natural gas production occurs in Texas, making it the Nation’s leading natural gas producer.   

Governor Rick Perry has issued the following statement regarding Texas’ legal action challenging the EPA’s takeover of Texas’ 16-year-old air permitting process:

This legal action is the next step in our ongoing commitment to fight back against the Obama Administration’s ever-widening effort to undermine our air quality initiatives and force a heavy-handed federal agenda on the people of Texas.

The EPA’s overreach is as potentially devastating as it is unnecessary, as Texas has achieved greater improvements in air quality than the nation as a whole since 2000 through our use of incentives and innovation.

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.

The EPA’s actions would likely result in significantly higher prices for energy and just about everything else, a frightening prospect during a time so many Americans are struggling to make ends meet.

I applaud General Abbott’s actions, and will continue to pressure Congress and the Obama administration to get the EPA under some control before irrevocable damage is done to one of the country’s strongest economies.

State of Texas Challenges EPA’s Flex Permit Ruling

More than a decade after Texas’ flexible permit rules were implemented, federal agency unilaterally rejects the State’s program

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today filed a legal challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to disapprove the State’s Flexible Permits Program. The State’s petition for reconsideration was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.

Texas’ Flexible Permits Program was established in 1994 in an effort to incentivize grandfathered operations to voluntarily enter into the State’s air permitting and environmental regulation program. Facilities that were exempted because of their grandfathered status agreed to submit to state regulation because the program offered them operational flexibility.

In exchange for emissions regulations, participants were authorized to allocate emissions on a facility-wide basis rather than by source point. The end result was a program that gave facilities greater flexibility and control – but that reduced emissions and complied with all state health standards, as well as all applicable federal Clean Air Act requirements.

State of Texas v. EPA

At the time that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) established the Flexible Permits Program, Texas had a large number of “grandfathered” facilities that pre-dated the State’s permitting program, which did not begin until 1971. As the EPA acknowledges, neither the EPA nor the TCEQ had statutory authority to impose controls on – or require permits for – these grandfathered facilities.

Because of the Flexible Permits Program – and the enactment of Texas laws that later imposed mandatory permitting requirements – there are no longer any grandfathered facilities in the State of Texas. In contrast, multiple other states across the country are still home to facilities that are grandfathered and therefore exempt from both state and federal permitting requirements.

The TCEQ submitted its Flexible Permits Program rules to the EPA in 1994. Although the TCEQ has been issuing flexible permits without interference from the federal government since the first term of the Clinton Administration, the EPA rejected the rules and disapproved the Texas program on July 15, 2010.Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA was required to act on Texas’ rules within one year. Yet the federal government waited more than a decade – three presidential administrations – to take action on and ultimately reject the TCEQ’s Flexible Permits Program rules.

Despite the fact that more than a dozen years passed since the rules were first submitted, the TCEQ attempted to work with the Obama administration and resolve the new EPA administrator’s objections. On June 16, 2010, the commission promulgated draft rules that amended the Flexible Permits Program in an effort to resolve the federal government’s concerns. Despite TCEQ’s efforts, the EPA summarily disapproved the Texas program just one month after the State’s new proposed rules were published.

By rejecting Texas’ Flexible Permits Program, the EPA has unilaterally declared that the program is not in compliance with federal law. The EPA’s decision not only imposes significant uncertainty on entities that employ thousands of Texans, but it threatens the livelihood of their employees – who depend upon those facilities for their jobs. According to the Texas Governor’s Office, recent decisions by the EPA to extend federal control over the state threaten tens of thousands of Texas jobs.

The EPA’s decision also threatens a regulatory program that has successfully reduced harmful emissions in the State of Texas. Emissions data cited by the Governor’s Office indicates that the Texas clean air program achieved a 22 percent reduction in ozone and a 46 percent reduction in NOx, which outpaces the eight percent and 27 percent reductions that were recorded nationally.

The EPA opted to disapprove the State’s Flexible Permits Program and impose the federal government’s judgment on the State despite Section 101 of the Clean Air Act, which provides that air pollution prevention “is the primary responsibility of the States and local governments.” Section 110 of the Act provides a similar admonishment to respect the states’ authority, stipulating that “[e]ach State shall have the primary responsibility for assuring air quality within the entire geographic area comprising such State.”

The Texas Attorney General’s Office filed today’s legal action against the EPA on behalf of TCEQ in an effort to defend the State’s legal rights and challenge improper overreach by the federal government.

http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_news/united_states/texas-files-lawsuit-against-epa-over-clean-air-initiatives-36139.html


So here is the story in a nutshell. The Federal Government had one year to object to Texas' permit program but they wait 16 years (sounds like an open and shut case on that fact alone).  The Texas program is more successful than the federal program as it protects the environment and human health better than the feds as demonstrated by the lower emissions. So why is the Federal government vacating this very successful permitting program again? Because Obama has an agenda to get rid of fossil fuels no matter what it will mean for real Americans. 

If the Feds are successful in the lawsuit several refineries will end up closing because the federal program is much more onerous as it requires more paperwork and permits (i.e. money) and employees to remain compliant even though it doesn't actually work which means higher gas prices and more unemployed people.