Posted on 12/27/2010 12:41:21 PM PST by SeekAndFind
And so it begins, and on the most fertile red-state territory in the nation. Texas, which got four more seats in the House through the 2010 Census reapportionment, has had its air-quality rules superceded by the EPA as part of its aggressive new action on carbon emissions. Governor Rick Perry promises a fight:
The federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday effectively declared Texas unfit to regulate its owngreenhouse gas emissions and took over carbon dioxide permitting of any new or expanding industrial facilities starting Jan. 2.
The EPA also set up a framework for regulating greenhouse gas emissions in seven other states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon and Wyoming. In addition, the agency set a timetable on establishing regulated levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
The action will give the EPA permitting authority over refineries, power plants and cement facilities in Texas, the agency said, but will not affect small pollution source facilities, such as restaurants and farms.
Well, perhaps not directly, but the increase in energy prices and shortages created by the EPA imposition of what will essentially be carbon taxes will impact businesses throughout the Texas economy, as well as consumers who ultimately pay the costs of the regulatory regime. Rick Perry has signaled a court fight to stop the EPA and the Obama administration:
Texas is the only state that has refused to implement the new rules. President Barack Obama is pressing ahead with the regulations after Congress failed to pass legislation capping carbon emissions. Perry, a Republican, calls the rules overreaching by the federal government that will cripple his state’s economy.
“The EPA’s misguided plan paints a huge target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers by implementing unnecessary, burdensome mandates on our state’s energy sector, threatening hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs and imposing increased living costs on Texas families,” Katherine Cesinger, a Perry spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.
The timing is certainly interesting. The EPA made this move two days before Christmas, when most people had stopped paying attention to political news. The EPA’s move thus got missed by most of the national media, even though it demonstrates well the Obama strategy in 2011 to win through regulation what it could not win through legislation. And by focusing on Texas, where Republicans have a chance to redistrict with practically no interference from Democrats, the move will certainly incentivize the GOP to limit as much as possible the representation of Democrats in their Congressional delegation as the Republican-controlled House attempts to stymie the EPA’s regulatory innovation.
This also will vault Rick Perry to the highest level of national politics, even as he continues to insist that he won’t run for President. With a third term as governor in hand and a perfect political battle opening in front of him, though, the opportunity may be too much to resist for a man who could possibly unite conservatives and the GOP for a big run against a stumbling Obama in 2012.
He is a puppet.
He and his several dozen "czars" all come out of the same milieu of Soros organizations. The laws he has been jamming through congress were written by those organizations and passed unread by congress and signed unread by himself.
Which means, of course, that under Pelosi and Reid we had a puppet congress too.
You'll notice that all of the debates we've had prior to any votes were all platitudes and generalities, devoid of detail. Thats because no one had actually read the bills.
They say he is bored with being president, and I say, of course he's bored. He isn't president. He's a cardboard cut-out. He's a place-holder.
My late father used the term, “they can go pi$$ up a crooked rope!”
You see, a straight rope won’t do....it has to be a CROOKED rope.
From the “Texas Secede” web-site:
Q: Doesn’t the Texas Constitution reserve the right of Texas to secede?
A: This heavily popularized bit of Texas folklore finds no corroboration where it counts: No such provision is found in the current Texas Constitution[1] (adopted in 1876) or the terms of annexation.[2] However, it does state (in Article 1, Section 1) that “Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States...” (note that it does not state “...subject to the President of the United States...” or “...subject to the Congress of the United States...” or “...subject to the collective will of one or more of the other States...”)
Neither the Texas Constitution, nor the Constitution of the united States, explicitly or implicitly disallows the secession of Texas (or any other “free and independent State”) from the United States. Joining the “Union” was ever and always voluntary, rendering voluntary withdrawal an equally lawful and viable option (regardless of what any self-appointed academic, media, or government “experts”—including Abraham Lincoln himself—may have ever said).
Both the original (1836) and the current (1876) Texas Constitutions also state that “All political power is inherent in the people ... they have at all times the inalienable right to alter their government in such manner as they might think proper.”
With all due respect, the 10th Amendment has been ignored more times than I can count - and laws and regulations violating it have been upheld almost as often.
You would not an honest court interpreting the constitution; one that wasn’t interested in activism. Go find one. MAYBE the SCOTUS on a 5-4 decision.
Me too. Unlike the last time...
most states..especially southern border states would be better off going back to territory status and completely dump all eco-KOOK regs and unfunded fed.mandates.
Yes, and surprised at Oregon and Maine.
Our SCOTUS should have been onto 0’b like stink on poo-poo, yet they have sit back with their fingers up their axx doing nothing.
Hopefully Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett are on the walls!
I believe congress gave these powers to the EPA a while ago.
Much like the Montana gun laws, all bluff and bluster. The fedgov has more power to lean on the little guys.
What feds? The FBI? Woukld they want a shootout with the Texas Rangers? (NOT the baseball team.)
Watch it, Texas is “Fed Up”.
Memo to EPA from Texas: Take a hike!
And besides, the first step will be some US Marshals arresting the plant manager at a refinery for operating without a permit. Will the Texas Rangers go to bat for him? Doubt it.
We can have CW2 dreams all we want, but the fact is the local LEO’s will just follow orders. I used to think different, but have talked to way to many to believe that anymore.
The "nuclear option" would be for Perry to declare that Texas would no longer have any sort of welfare program, other than providing a proposed welfare recipient with a free bus ticket to DC.
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Bumperoo
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And so it begins, and on the most fertile red-state territory in the nation. Texas, which got four more seats in the House through the 2010 Census reapportionment, has had its air-quality rules superceded by the EPA as part of its aggressive new action on carbon emissions.Thanks SeekAndFind.
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