The dirty little secret about Rick Perry's anti-federal government

[white cloud]

9:18 AM Thu, May 27, 2010 | Permalink
Michael Landauer/Editor Bio | E-mail | Suggest a blog topic


Gov. Rick Perry is at it again this week. The governor who has said there may come a time when we need to secede from the union said that the EPA and Obama have a "campaign to harm our economy." He essentially says that the EPA's crackdown on Texas' lax regulation of oil refineries is not aimed at cleaning the air, but is an effort to cost Texans thousands of jobs.

I don't understand why Perry says things like this. He already has the wild-eyed, black helicopter vote. This kind of baseless paranoia does not appeal to voters who are not on the right fringe. I understand that he and the EPA have major disagreements on the balance between free enterprise and cleaner air, but to accuse the federal government of being motivated by a desire to harm our economy? That's not persuasive to someone like me, even though I have voted for Perry in all but one of his statewide races (I voted for Sharp for Lt. Gov. way back when).

......
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/the-dirty-littl.html

[sonias]

1. "He already has the wild-eyed, black helicopter vote."

:spray: I'm still catching up on news I missed while on vacation. That has to be the best line I've seen in print.
:applause: to Michael Landauer!


On a related note - Perry continues to grandstand on Texas smokey air:

AAS 6/2/10
Perry touts state's air quality, blasts EPA
(snip)
Perry continued to frame the disagreement between the EPA and Texas as a political battle over states' rights.

"We will fight it with every breath that we have and every tool that we have available to us," he said.

(snip)
Matthew Tejada of Air Alliance Houston said that the concerns over the permit program have been an issue for years and that even though the EPA is trying to address them, the state isn't.

"Instead we're digging in our heels. I think it's just politics as usual," he said.

[sonias]

2. The Pollution Wars

Texas Tribune 6/4/10
The Pollution Wars
(snip)
The back-and-forth follows the EPA's announcement last week that it will strip the state of permitting authority for a huge refinery in East Corpus Christi. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the EPA said, was doing a shoddy job — and the agency threatened to take more plants away from TCEQ jurisdiction unless it changes its permitting system.

So does all the hubbub mean that Texas' air is dangerous to breathe? Mostly no. But exactly how safe it is and exactly who gets the credit are open questions.


(snip)
Things aren't quite so simple, environmentalists say. First, they argue, credit for improvement belongs to the EPA, not Texas. "It was the feds who came in and said, we're going to cut off transportation funding" unless things improve, says Tom "Smitty" Smith, the state director of the environmental and consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. Federal requirements for cleaner cars and trucks have also been crucial.

Second, environmentalists say that the EPA could still be doing more to force improvements in Texas. On Wednesday, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice sent out a notice of intent to sue the EPA unless it enforced ozone standards in Texas more strictly. Enforcement has been slowed, they said, by foot-dragging by the Perry governor's office — as well as lax regulation during the eight years that George W. Bush was in the White House. The EPA plans to issue new ozone standards by the end of August, and when it does, more areas of the state — including Austin, San Antonio and northeast Texas — will be designated "non-attainment," according to Neil Carman, the clean air program director for the Sierra Club's Texas chapter.

:popcorn: