Texas sues EPA, claims decision to regulate CO2 is based on flawed science

Texas Governor Rick Perry

AP Photo

Governor Rick Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbot and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced today that the state is taking legal action in the U.S Court of Appeals challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to regulate green house gases.

“This legal action is being taken to protect Texas economy and the jobs that go with it, as well as defend Texas’ freedom to continue our successful environmental strategies free from federal overreach”, said Perry.

Since 2007, when the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA concluded that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act the debate over policy approaches to addressing climate change has intensified, so also questions as to whether the health and environmental benefits of air pollution control justify the costs incurred by industry, taxpayers, and consumers.

“With billions of dollars at stake, EPA outsources the scientific basis for its greenhouse gas regulation to a scandal-plagued international organization that cannot be considered objective or trustworthy”, said Attorney General Greg Abbot, “so EPA should not rely upon it to reach a decision that will hurt small businesses, farmers and ranchers, and the larger Texas economy”.

The state has filed a Petition for review with the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit, and will also file a Petition for Reconsideration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking administrator Lisa P. Jackson to reconsider her decision. Texas holds that EPA’s Endangerment Finding is legally unsupported because the agency outsourced scientific assessment to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr. Phil Jones, a scientist at the center of the Climategate scandal has acknowledged problems with climate change science.

Still, according to the Environmental Defense Fund EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gases was not exclusively based on research done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IPCC), but also on research by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Research Council, and others. A study by scientists from the U.S.'s National Climatic Data Center also refutes claims that data from U.S. weather stations was seriously flawed and exaggerated the rate of temperature increases. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, says that U.S. weather stations may have actually slightly underestimated temperature increases.

“This morning Governor Perry attempted to show Texas voters that he is bigger than both Texas and federal law”, said Tom “Smitty” Smith Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office. “but instead just further highlighted his failure to protect Texans’ health and the safety and long term stability of our economy and climate”.