Instead of fixing air issues, Texas sues EPA - again

An editorial in the Houston Chronicle reports that "Texas sued the Environmental Protection Agency, yet again, for having the temerity to ask it, yet again, to stop poisoning our air." The EPA is requiring that Texas along with many other states improve their pollution control by limiting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen-oxide emissions. Originally only nitrogen-oxide in Texas, the attorney general Greg Abbott's office claimed "that it would result in loss of jobs and service interruptions." A suit is being filed by Luminant Generation Co. "the state's largest provider of electricity"  said "it will be forced to close several facilities and cut 500 jobs to comply with the ruling." In addition, the House of Representatives has passed a measure that will "likely delay the [EPA] ruling for several years." The EPA claims there will be no such interruptions and "no such problems have arisen in 40 years of EPA rulings."


I happen to side with this frustrated author that Texas ought to have more strict standards and improve air quality. However, their credibility is immediately brought into question with the statement that Texas is " home to 19 coal-fired power plants, the most in the nation." This is simply not true. Many other states have more coal-fired power plants ,but Texas does however produce the most amount of electricity from coal according to 2005 power production estimates.  The author could elaborate further on the subject of the pollutants and their harmful effects as grounds for more strict pollution standards. They do use E PA projections as a convincing persuader. The author provides reasoning for both sides expressing there frustration with Texas and its resilience (reasoning not) to comply as well as the EPA's argument "cleaner air would save lives, create jobs and save about $100 billion a year." In my opinion It's not really hard to argue that cleaner air would be nice ,and getting the political agenda in line so this can happen will be long and tedious.

Texas Education Funding Crisis

The Dallas Morning News repots, on top of the "more than $4 billion" dollar budget cut that schools recently took, "three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry may grant some of the nations largest refineries a tax refund of more than $135 million." This will only worsen the current school funding crisis. If this tax refund is approved other refineries could be eligible for these same tax breaks. Valero initially asked for the refund regarding  pollution-controlling equipment they were required to purchase by the EPA. Valero's argument is that " the units should be exempt under a Texas law that says industrial plants don't have to pay taxes on equipment purchased to reduce on-site pollution." Valero was first denied but has since appealed the decision.  School districts are "in an uncomfortable position" because there is no timeline on the ruling and they may be forced to return money that needs to be or could already be spent on necessities. This decision will affect everyone including "the children of the employees that help make the companies[/refineries} what they are."