Texas loses another round in fight over EPA regulation of greenhouse gases

Jan 13 - The Dallas Morning News

Texas lost a third round Wednesday in its legal fight to halt federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Texas had asked the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to block a program that awards construction permits to major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as cement kilns and oil refineries. Every other state has begun the permit program or allowed EPA to award permits for them.

On Wednesday, the court denied Texas' request for a stay, clearing the way for the EPA to regulate major sources in Texas. A three-judge panel wrote that Texas didn't satisfy "the stringent standards" required for a stay.

Environmental groups said the decision shows that Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott have filed frivolous lawsuits that amount to political statements about global warming.

"Texas is the only state in the nation that refused to let anyone -- the state or the feds -- issue permits for carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming," David Doniger, the chief global warming lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote on his blog. "The court's ruling now assures that EPA will be able to fill that void for as long as Texas' leaders continue their grandstanding, so that companies can continue building their projects, but with reasonable limits on all of their dangerous pollutants.

Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Abbott, said the ruling won't discourage Texas from pressing forward with several lawsuits that challenge the EPA's key climate-change regulations. Texas maintains that EPA doesn't have the legal authority to regulate industrial carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act.

"While the court declined to proactively prohibit the EPA from continuing its federalization effort, today's ruling did not reach the heart of the State's claim and does not affect Texas' ability to continue pursuing its legal challenge against the agency," Bean said. "With the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of Texas families and businesses at risk, Texas will continue to challenge the EPA's unlawful overreach."

The greenhouse-gas permit program took effect Jan. 2. The rules require businesses to consider the "best available control technology" for reducing greenhouse gas emissions when they build a plant or modify an existing one.

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