EPA continues to threaten Texas refineries with penalties

Houston Chronicle ^ | 12/8/2010 | Matthew Tresaugue

[EBH]

The EPA has threatened dozens of Texas refiners and chemical and plastic makers with penalties if they don't begin taking steps to bring their air pollution permits into compliance with federal law by late December.

The blunt threat was made in a recent letter by the Environmental Protection Agency's administrator in Texas, heightening tensions in a standoff that has already reached the courts.

Texas has sued to block the EPA from rejecting its so-called flexible permits. On Tuesday, Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a brief in the case, fleshing out his arguments in a July petition that the agency had no legal or technical justification for disapproving the 16-year-old program.

The EPA's rejection of the Texas permitting regime in June is "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law," Abbott wrote in the brief for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The EPA has defended the decision, saying the Texas rules fall short of the federal Clean Air Act's requirements. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issues the permits on behalf of the EPA, but the federal agency decides whether they are in compliance with the law.

The flexible permits cover 130 industrial facilities across the state, but most of them have made no attempt to fix their permits, the EPA said.

Last week, the agency sent letters to 74 companies, giving them until Dec. 22 to explain

[headstamp 2]

Ignore these statist bastards.

[zeugma]

We need to develop powerful tools to fight commissions and agencies

I figure a .50 cal is powerful enough for what is needed.

[rurgan]

This about CO2 global warming hoax bs.

The EPA going to do this to all states, all new energy projects, all new construction, all factories. FACT :

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2605230/posts

[EBH]

The state’s flexible air-permit program, launched 16 years ago, caps emissions of air pollutants from an entire facility, but the EPA wants to scrutinize and restrict emissions from every polluting unit of a plant. Stricter rules are expected to add costs for companies holding flex permits and limit operational flexibility.

[2harddrive]

I have heard that the criminal EPA organization is literally TAKING OVER in Texas on January 1, 2011. What have you heard?

[One Name]

CO2 is the latest scam; this crap has been going on for quite a while, basically getting traction since the Clean Air Act was passed. We move from serious and hazardous pollutants (HAPs), to volatile organic compounds (VOCs- remember the “ozone hole”) to this nebulous “greenhouse gas” BS that takes in everything from cattle farting on up.

This country needs abundant energy. We will never recover, let alone reestablish a manufacturing base without it.

Reasonable, state controls on hazardous wastes and pollutants are in order. Federal mandates based on european liberal green theory are unconstitutional.

Defund the EPA now. Shut it down in 2012 for good.

[potlatch]

*

[EBH]

I believe it is still a “threat.”

Statement by Gov. Rick Perry on EPA’s Efforts to Take Over Texas’ Air Permitting Program
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 • Dallas, Texas

Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement on the EPA’s efforts to take over Texas’ air permitting program:

“The Obama administration has taken yet another step in its campaign to harm our economy and impose federal control over Texas. With their decision to take control of a permitting process that the Clean Air Act allows to be delegated to the states, the EPA is on the verge of killing thousands of Texas jobs and derailing a program that has cleaned Texas’ air.

“Because Texas involves the Legislature, TCEQ, business owners and the public in the process, and focuses on results instead of big-government control, our state’s air is cleaner than it was ten years ago and our economy is stronger than most other states.

“This is not a partisan issue: our emissions control program went into effect under Gov. Ann Richards in 1994 and was approved by the Clinton administration. Since then, the EPA’s unelected bureaucrats haven’t ruled on it once, yet, with the arrival of a new administration in Washington, they have put a bulls-eye on the backs of hardworking Texans.

“An increasingly activist EPA is ignoring the 22 percent reduction in ozone and 46 percent decrease in NOX emissions that Texas has achieved since 2000.

“On behalf of those Texans whose jobs are threatened by this latest overreach, and in defense of not only our clean air program but also our rights under the 10th Amendment, I am calling upon President Obama to rein in the EPA and instruct them to study our successful approach for recommended use elsewhere.”

[dennisw]

Obama and his EPA want to screw all redneck oil producers. So first they screwed Louisiana off shore drilling and now they aim to screw Texas. Just about all oil/gas men are Republicans so Obama wants to make miserable beggars out of them and those who work in the oil biz doing grunt work.

[B4Ranch]

If Texas secedes I’ll be moving thataway.

[The Comedian]

If Texas secedes I’ll be moving thataway.

I've been saying this for months: Don't wait.

All patriots should move to Texas *NOW*. Heck, you can treat my place as a half-way house.

Best economy in the former united States, very Red State (except for the commie cities, buy they aren't Texas anyway), best climate (except for the summers, but right now, hell, I'm in shorts and a T-shirt), and a tradition of FU to the government.

Move, now, before we secede, and you need a Republic of Texas visa.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[wendy1946]

You got it.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The Commie’RATS are going to “nationalize” all energy sources and all utilities. Those “ranchers” that have made a deal with the devil by allowing those goofy windmills to be set up on their ranches, well, I hope they are enjoying the money they are receiving right now. They’ve lost their ranch. They just haven’t realized it yet. It won’t be long before the government comes in and just takes over. IMHO.

[B4Ranch]

I need to stop in at the AAA office and pick up a bunch of Texas tourist pamphlets to lay around the house. You know, kinda introduce the idea of moving back to Texas gently. Make her think it’s her idea. (sneaky grin)

[palmer]

I notice the environmentalist that they quote in the story conflates greenhouse theory with local air pollution: “...they’d learn real quickly that breathing toxic soup is not a
theoretical issue...” They are simply liars. The flexible permits do and have greatly improved air quality at low cost. Now they want to allow the Feds to squash the remaining energy intensive industry in this country and send it to China. They are anti-American fools at the very least. At worst they are Chicomm plants.

[bert]

——”arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law,” Abbott wrote-——

Didn’t he use to be Kramer’s attorney?

[EBH]

They started pulling this stunt right after the oil spill. There is a history on this issue going back to March of this year...and then further back.

0bama pulled his top dog off the oil spill to get this aggressive take over started.

Hunt around a bit for the history. I recall posting the first thread here and saying to keep an eye on this at the time. They had already “taken over the permitting” process of a few facilities. It is/was unprecedented.

They are using Texas to set a precedent. It is not necessarily about “shutting down access to energy,” as much as it is about if they can get away with this...

Then every state is at risk.

[reaganator]

The attack on oil, the lifeblood of the American economy.

The EPA must be defeated.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I went on a roadtrip out West in 2005. In the Texas panhandle and Amarillo on I-40, no smog that I can remember. On the other hand, on I-15 in the Inland Empire, it was like running into a brown wall.

[3rdcoastislander]

Same here in Corpus. We have many refineries but all the wind from the coast cleans out the air. As a result Corpus has some of the cleanest air in the South.