Perry’s New Appointee Gets Slapped Down by the Feds.

Yesterday, I wrote the follow asking the EPA to intervene in Texas ,but before I could post it to my blog, the EPA did exactly what I wanted and intervened in Texas.

Dear EPA, please intervene in Texas

I know you are watching us so you must know how desperately we need an intervention in Texas. We don’t have much chance now that our governor appointed a global warming denier to head up the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality TCEQ. This reckless act of defiance not only endangers my fellow Texans but, because Texas has the highest rate of greenhouse gas GHG emissions it endangers and unfairly burdens the entire country and our planet.

In Texas, the TCEQ sets no limits in ambient air for the most powerful GHG, methane, which some people like to call “natural gas.” In fact, they specifically omit the control of methane in ambient air! There are no limits for emissions of methane to the air in Texas.

The Texas Railroad Commission TRC does not prevent, prohibit, nor limit the emission of methane to the air, UNLESS it has a commercial value–AND, they let the operator determine if it has a commercial value.

Despite claims made by the newly appointed TECQ head, our air gets worse by the day. Texas has a VERY MAJOR PROBLEM of industry buy out so essentially we have almost no regulation at all! A Federal intervention is our one and only hope!

Please pull back the power given to Texas and make a national example out of the pollution in Texas. We are a danger to ourselves and the rest of the country.

Well dang! Do we share a brain or can they read my thoughts? Lookie here:

EPA to reject Texas air permit process

The air-pollution permitting process in the nation’s largest greenhouse-gas producing state does not adhere to the Clean Air Act and portions of it should be thrown out, federal regulators said Tuesday in an announcement applauded by Texas environmentalists.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed rejecting Texas’ flexible permits, which allow polluters to exceed emission limits in particular areas so long as they reach an overall emissions average. The EPA also said it plans to reject other rules, including those allowing polluters to make changes at facilities without the lengthy permitting process that requires public hearings.

The article goes on to say the permitting process should be “transparent and understandable.”

And in startling contrast to Bryan Shaw’s claim that Texas was making “tremendous improvements,” EPA Region 6 acting administrator, Lawrence Starfield made the following emphatic statement:

These notices make clear our view that significant changes are necessary for compliance with the Clean Air Act.

OUTSTANDING!