Texas is refusing to write its state implementation plan for regulation greenhouse gases (GHGs), the most recent challenge to the EPA's efforts to combat climate change. Two top state officials, Bryan W. Shaw, Chairman of the Texas CEQ, and Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a six-page letter, dated Monday, Aug. 2, 2010, that explained the state's reasoning for resisting federal attempts to control GHG.

"On behalf of the State of Texas, we write to inform you that Texas has neither the authority nor the intention of interpreting, ignoring, or amending its laws in order to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas emissions," the officials wrote.

The defiant letter accused the federal EPA of treading on state regulatory authority, and called the agency's GHG control program illegal because it requires only certain industries to regulate GHGs as a pollutant, as opposed to the Clean Air Act's mandate to regulate any facility that emits more than 100 tons of a pollutant.

The EPA is expected to respond with a federal implementation plan instead, though a court challenge of the regulation by Texas is expected.

The letter is available here: www.eenews.net/assets/2010/08/04/document_gw_01.pdf (pdf).

SOURCE: Above link.