Austin Legislators Sell Out Texas to EPA Bureaucracy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 23, 2010
CONTACT: Travis County Republican Party at 512-302-1776
or Dave Nalle, TCRP Communications Director at 512-656-8011

Austin Legislators Sell Out Texas to EPA Bureaucracy

AUSTIN, TX – Big government is coming to Texas and Austin area legislators are putting out the red carpet. Not content to keep their failures confined to the national level, Washington bureaucrats are determined to expand their influence and control within the states. With unfunded mandates and coercive legislation they are working to shift the burden of big government onto state governments like ours which have been responsible and limited their spending and protected their people and businesses as much as possible from the economic downturn.

The latest target of the power-hungry bureaucrats is Texas' remarkably successful clean air program which has us well ahead of nationwide trends in the reduction of pollutants like ozone and nitrous oxide, and has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 48 other states despite a population which has grown by 1000 people a day since 2000. We have even built more wind power generation capacity than any other state at the same time as creating more new jobs than any other state.

We've gotten clean air right and done it without sacrificing jobs or damaginc our economy. Washington ought to be commissioning studies on how other states can be as successful. But instead, activists at the EPA are trying to expand their power at the expense of Texas' energy industry because we don't do our paperwork the way they want us to. They have ruled that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's permitting system is in violation of the Clean Air Act because its Flexible Permits Program, which has allowed our energy industry to prosper and create jobs while still having the cleanest air in the nation, is not "consistent" with their bureaucratic requirements.

Republican officials like Attorney General Gregg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry have refused to knuckle under to yet another effort by federal bureaucrats to violate the sovereignty of our state. As they did with Obamacare, they are looking out for the best interests of the people of Texas and have filed a legal action to defend the state's rights and block this interference with our regulatory practices.

Yet four of our Travis County legislators; Dawnna Dukes, Donna Howard, Elliott Naishtat ad Eddie Rodriguez, are not standing up for us. They have signed onto a letter to President Obama applauding the EPA for their actions against Texas. For these legislators the best interests of Texas and the citizens of Travis County come second to their loyalty to the Obama administration and the federal bureaucratic machine which it has already increased in size by more than 30% in just a year.
Texans know how to stand up against tyranny, and we have to stand up to the EPA and those who support it. This effort to break down our control over our own environmental regulation is just the first step in expanding the power of the regulatory bureaucracy. Its ultimate goal is the unconstitutional implementation of cap and trade regulations and carbon taxes which will massively increase energy costs for every Texan.

We urge everyone in Travis County who believes that government is best when it is limited, local and taxes us no more than is truly needed, to contact these legislators and urge them to support Governor Perry and Attorney General Abbott in opposing excessive regulation that hurts Texans and Texas business.
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