The treacherous and unlawful demands of the Environmental Protection Agency trying to force their control on states continue to face a tenacious soldier in Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Abbott and the State of Texas filed its opening brief challenging the EPA’s improper attempt to instantly impose unlawful regulations in the Lone Star State.
When Texans learned last year that the EPA began playing games with their own deadline that requires lower emissions with air pollution rules, experts discovered this would lead to the inevitable closing of Texas energy plants, lay off thousands of workers and create blackouts.
EPA: UNACCOUNTABLE BUREAUCRATS
“Once again, the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the EPA are flouting the law by denying Texas the opportunity to manage its own air permitting program,” Abbott said on February 9, 2012.
“The EPA’s unlawful scheme threatens Texas jobs and businesses by imposing costly and unnecessary greenhouse gas regulations immediately and improperly,” the Attorney General stated. “These expensive mandates do little to make our air safer or to control the global warming the EPA insists is threatening our country, while doing great damage to our energy independence and economic recovery.”
This legal action was necessary to stop the EPA from imposing its “unprecedented and unlawful attempt to regulate” greenhouse regulations on Texas.
EPA VIOLATED FEDERAL LAW BY NOT ALLOWING THREE YEARS
Abbott maintains the EPA violated federal law when it tried to require the State to immediately begin implementing new regulations, rather providing the three years as required by federal law.
Many in Texas have seen this “EPA gone wild” declaration first hand.
Last fall, Abbott took legal action against the EPA by asking a federal court to enact a stay on the regulations.
Abbott said that “when the EPA issued its July 7, 2011, Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), the Administrator failed to comply with federal laws that require federal agencies to inform the public of rule proposals in advance so that affected parties can participate in the rule-making process.”
“EPA opted not to include the State of Texas in key aspects of the proposed” regulations imposed in August, 2010, Abbott argued. The EPA “added Texas without notice to the final regulations earlier this year—the rule violated federal law and should be stayed by the Court”.
Even the state's power grid operator cautioned that electric dependability would be compromised.
TEXAS FACES POWER OUTAGES BECAUSE OF EPA
Luminant, the largest power generator in Texas informed officials they would be forced to close two coal plants and three lignite mines at a cost of 500 jobs rather than facing large fines and penalties for exceeding the pollution limits.
EPA threatened to immediately take over part of Texas’ air permitting program “or impose a construction moratorium on Texas businesses if the State didn’t agree to immediately comply with the EPA’s unlawful greenhouse gas regulations,” the Office of Texas Attorney General stated.
Wyoming and Texas were given unlawful choices by EPA that expanded beyond their powers, according to the legal brief.
The EPA said the states could revise their domestic laws in only a few “weeks to carry out EPA’s regulatory scheme,” or “abandon their rights under the Clean Air Act.”
The second option would have caused Texas to relinquish the State’s permitting authority under federal and state laws and consenting to federal control.
EPA COERCION THREATENS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
The third option is a real threat of Texas suffering a suspension on construction of sources emitting greenhouse gases.
“There is no clearer case of coercion possible than threatening to bar economic activity in a time of economic troubles,” the legal brief states.
“EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act clearly violates the Tenth Amendment, but this Court may avoid a determination that EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act is unconstitutional by applying instead an interpretation of the Act that is both more reasonable and more firmly rooted in its plain text.”
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