Posted on 08/06/2011 3:17:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Texas' grudge match with the Environmental Protection Agency is getting nastier and riskier, with the fallout threatening to reach the state's power grid.
Want another reason to worry about the lights staying on? Or how about another hit to the economy?
You've heard lots of political posturing about Texas' way of life being threatened by an overreaching federal government. This time, Gov. Rick Perry has a point.
Last month, the EPA included Texas in a new rule on cross-state pollution, catching many by surprise. Coal plants must reduce some emissions by half by Jan. 1, a deadline that has some operators saying they'll cut production or shutter facilities.
That means the state may not have enough electricity to meet spiking demand. The risk became painfully obvious last week after the heat wave set records for electricity usage and emergency measures were taken to prevent outages.
Texas doesn't have much extra capacity when temperatures hit extreme highs or lows, as we've seen this year. Even before the latest EPA rule, regulators worried about attracting more power generation for the fast-growing state.
Yet the EPA says the grid's reliability won't be jeopardized by the pollution controls or the deadline.
"Nearly half of the emissions of soot-forming sulfur dioxide covered by the rule are produced by just three plants, which in turn account for only about one-tenth of the state's electricity generation," EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.
......"If we're short even three old coal plants, even if they're only [reduced by] 50 percent, we'd have rolling blackouts," Commissioner Kenneth Anderson said at a Texas Public Utility Commission meeting last week.
"I don't know what the EPA administrator is smoking in Washington," he said, "but they're flat-out wrong. It will have a reliability impact."............
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
These EPA government controls and dictates are heading your way.
It's just that Texas is growing and producing -- that is an intolerable "sin" to the Obama administration and the EPA.
Oh, and Texas, naturally, is a RED state.
Read the article and find out what happens when you produce, prosper and the EPA decides to shut you down.
This isn't a Big Power problem, this EPA dictate will impact every man, woman and child in Texas and beyond.
bump
The EPA will be history under President Perry....another reason to support him....
It is time for Texas to ignore the EPA, like obama ignores the courts...
MONTANA: Legal gamesmanship threatens our energy future “Texas Gov. Rick Perry is able to boast about job growth under his watch, noting that over 265,000 jobs, or nearly 37 percent of the jobs created nationwide since the summer of 2009, have been created in the Lone Star state.
He credits this growth to a few simple conditions: low taxes, a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable, and a legal system that limits frivolous lawsuits. According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly one-fourth of the 70 companies that left California this year relocated to Texas.
When new or relocating companies and investors survey the landscape and consider Montana, what do they see? Well, when it comes to natural-resource development, the landscape looks risky.
Recent headlines highlight two major resource development projects slogging through endless legal and regulatory challenges. Investment flees this kind of uncertainty, so Montanans interested in the future economic stability of this state should be wary of the signals we send…”
--snip-- [relates short history of 2 outrageous examples worth seeing -- decades! of fighting these guys] --
“The common experience for Tongue River Railroad and Tonbridge Power is this: Even if you play by the rules, even if you follow the letter of the law, even if you engage with the public during a planning process, even if you get formal approval from the regulatory authorities, you are certain to face organized opposition whose sole intent is to frustrate project development to the point of financial starvation….”
Texas is producing more jobs than any other state.
The liberals can't stand it that one state is prosperous compared to the others. Even though the overall national unemployment rate is 9% they must work to "equalize" things.
Texas has added 929,000 jobs since 2001, while California has lost approximately 635,000 manufacturing jobs in that same time, Stewart said.
Answering questions after his speech, Stewart told the story of Perry sending programmed cellphones to CEOs in California with a simple message: "If you're interested in growing your business, please call me. I'm here to help."
"They're doing something right down there," Stewart said of what he dubs the "Texas miracle." "Gov. Perry will go anywhere, any time, to try to recruit companies into Texas."
Perry has taken the state's regulatory process and managed it himself, Stewart said………
[CA Economic Development Corporation President Mark] Lascelles emphasized that it does no good to belabor California's regulatory environment.
"Unfortunately, we can't avoid it. We have to deal with it," he said. Speaker focuses on job creation
You right!
Perry environmental stance would transform EPA ....>>>>>Perry "approaches the issues from a very libertarian bent," said Jim DiPeso , policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection. "The EPA would be in for some significant budget reduction. There would be no new intiatives, no regulatory programs that would be initated. There'd be litigation from environmental groups that believe he's not enforcing the Clean Air Act and Water Act as robustly as the law provides."
"Any regulatory programs would be really throttled back," he said. "He has shown no interest in climate policy at all. He doesn't accept the science."
With the governor's blessing, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is challenging at least six EPA greenhouse gas-related regulations. The state's underlying argument: The fundamental finding that greenhouse gases are a public health threat is scientifically flawed.
The federal government is pushing "hastily enacted, cascading regulations" on states and businesses, Abbott argued in a June brief filed on behalf of nine states in federal court.
Perry's approach to energy, DiPeso said, "would be to produce more," rather than discourage the development of energy projects, such as coal plants, that emit greenhouse gases associated with global warming.
"In terms of energy, (Perry) would pursue what many Republicans call the 'all of the above' strategy, with more energy development offshore and onshore," DiPeso said. <<<<<
Considering that the Feds are now the ones making student loans, and only yesterday a Scottish academic called for students being allowed to sell a kidney to cover their student loan costs, I think Rick Perry's idea is hardly "radical."
It is situations like this that give me hope that Gov. Perry, should we elect him, could become the Destroyer of Federal Agencies we need. I suppose I should watch him on video, to see if I sense the deep wells of chaotic glee ...
I still wish he would issue State of Texas drilling permits and tell the FedGov to try and stop them ... Yoo-hoo, want to be President Perry and Vice President Fallin? Here’s how ...
The EPA won’t be going anywhere, no matter who is elected President.
This is an easy fix.
Propose legislation for TSA groping, tougher boarder security
and to eliminate sanctuary city policies as bargaining chips.
Again.
I think Perry’s 10th amendment platform coupled with: EPA/energy = strangling economy (cut regulations, taxes and lawsuits) = jobs, education — much too much $$ for too little, and his opposition to Obamacare, could see him sweep all 50 states.
The EPA has so far overstepped their mandate that they’ve become a national joke; too bad they have NO sense of humor.
But the EPA isn’t joking.
Through the EPA and Obamacare, the Left will run everything we touch, want, need.
the problem is that congress including the republicans have not taken control of 100% of all departments by making rules that the departments follow instead of letting the departments make rules. We don’t elect the people in Education, HHS, even defense, but they make rules - like having Green Firing ranges on a base...wth is that? Hot Air had a story about how many years it took to get concealed carry through MN - it will take twice as long to clean up Wash DC - 20 years. Long battle but worth it for our country.
We are having similar problems here in GA. What the EPA is doing in this area is absurd. They’ve put in place new requirements for 2-3 years out, when putting in SO2 scrubbers is at least a 4-5 year undertaking on a serious power plant. It is going to cause major problems and costs at a time when we can’t afford it on a number of levels.
Georgia Power warns of high costs for cleaner air
http://www.ajc.com/business/georgia-power-warns-of-1076538.html
Ga. Power says it can’t meet EPA deadline
http://www.ajc.com/business/ga-power-says-it-1039156.html
And Obama has another year to fill those agencies with more radicals and push regulations that are crippling our states' economies and destroying our country.
Perry says his rally is about prayers, not politics (will pray for God's wisdom to pour over Obama)
But you know it is really about Texas versus OK, AR, and LA.
These states also have regs to meet and this Texas pollution drifting in creates problems for them.
There was a period of time there between Katrina and when the economy collapsed when these coal burners were making phenomenal profits and they should have used some of those profits to fix their emissions problems.
Now the price of nat gas is down, demand for electricity is down, and their profits are down so these coal burners are are hurting and will hurt more if they scrub or burn less polluting and more expensive coal.
Thank you for adding Georgia’s situation.
Obama has touched and planted the seeds of destruction in every corner of America that strengthens and empowers capitalism and prosperity.
The damage is deeper than we can imagine.
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