11.25.08

Perry defends Texas polluters

Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Election 2010, Energy, Right Wing Lies, The Environment at 10:37 pm by dembones

Over the past eight years, Texas has been led by a dim-witted and fiercely partisan enemy of the environment, beholden to the petrochemical energy that for decades has used the Earth’s atmosphere as a sewer for dumping their toxins. No state emits more carbon dioxide. Texas is head and shoulders the leading producer of greenhouse gasses. Carbon dioxide is at the unprecedented level of 385 ppm, and Texas is a major contributor.

It’s bad enough that Texans were foolish enough to elect this piece of furniture twice to serve as our governor, but at least a piece of furniture has the good sense to remain silent. According to the AAS, Gubner clueless is now taking up the case for the rich polluters who see an end to their free reign as Democrat Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office in Washington D.C.

Federal caps on greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions would suffocate Texas’ economy, Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday as the state tries to fend off such limits.

As Texas suffocates the world with its carbon dioxide, Perry has staked out an early position on the side of those who profit from fouling Earth’s one and only atmosphere.

The caps are a threat that could “run this nation’s strongest economy right off the tracks and into the ditch,” Perry said at a news conference.

Does the economy here seem all that great to you? The last time I checked, businesses were failing, retirement savings were wiped out, uninsured children with common ailments are crowding our emergency rooms and college students put their dreams on hold because they can’t afford our unregulated tuition increases. It looks like the Republicans in charge have done a pretty good job leaving the rest of us in a ditch while they took big polluters’ campaign contributions.

“The idea that just because there’s been an administrative change and some would say the inevitability of these types of regulations does not change our attitude or change our effort to bring some reality and truth to the issues here,” Perry said.

Who is suggesting that Texas Republicans, who for fourteen years have been free to engage in the largest transfer of wealth to the rich in our lifetimes, casting a blind eye towards big polluters belching filth into the environment, would go along quietly when an inevitable change of power occurs in Washington? Was there even one person who thought these criminals would hesitate for a moment?

Washington could learn from Texas, which leads the nation in wind power, said Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Public Utility Commission and an author of the report.

Washington, Mr. Smitherman, is currently populated by George W. Bush and his appointees. You know, the guy from Texas? Until Obama takes office in 56 days, it remains very friendly to the state that seems to lead the nation in wingnuttery. Washington would do well to start paying a little more attention to the other states besides Texas, if you ask me. We’ve had our chance at bat, and we’ve blown it. Now it is time to face the music and stop dragging the United States down with our dirty coal plants, refineries and chemical plants.

The state has long resisted regulations on carbon dioxide emissions, arguing that they would unfairly burden the state’s businesses, ratchet up energy costs and wrap Texans in red tape.

I do not know how to make this any more clear. The businesses impacted by air quality standards are air polluters. They must comply with additional regulation because they have shown an unwillingness to regulate themselves. The profit these companies have reaped during the past 14 years is a direct result of dumping their pollution and pocketing the profit. It is a false profit, reaped in willful ignorance. The polluters take the money and leave their messes for someone else to clean up.

“Reductions in CO2 will likely be achieved by reducing coal-produced electricity, resulting in less fuel diversity, higher reliance on natural gas, decreased electric reliability, and higher prices for consumers,” the report says.

Texans are paying some of the highest electric rates in the nation right now. TXU and all the other massive political contributors to Republican campaigns are ripping off consumers and polluting the environment with their dirty coal plants. We’re supposed to believe their paid spokesmen in public office? Could they really be so arrogant and foolish to think we can’t tell when we’re being lied to?

Perry has questioned the link between human activities and global warming.

Again, it would have been so much better if we had a real piece of furniture instead of this loser as our governor. Who voted for this guy anyway? Oh yeah, 39 percent did. Would someone representing the other 61 percent of Texas please shut this guy up?

Texas Republicans are going extinct. We can only hope there’s still a world fit to live in when they’re finally out of power.

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