This was too funny not to share.
Courtesy of Gardner Selby at the Austin American Statesman’s Postcards blog:
Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, leader of the House Democratic Caucus, stunned observers at a hearing this afternoon by lining up what looked like shots of whiskey on the members’ dais in the hearing room and then gulping down several to buttress a point about the cumulative impact of air pollution.
But rest easy, Temperance League.
Dunnam said after shot three that the brownish liquid in the shot glasses was iced tea.
This is such a beautiful analogy. Chairman Dunnam made this point while explaining HB 2495, “AN ACT relating to the consideration of the cumulative effects of emissions from proposed facilities in actions by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on applications for certain air contaminant emissions permits or permit amendments.” With a total of 9 lines and less than 200 words, this was very simple.
When permitting new coal-fired power plants, current TCEQ policy does not consider the cumulative effects of the emissions from those plants. That means that if eight coal stacks were to be built within one county, as they were in McLennan county in 2007, then TCEQ can consider each of the proposals only as an individual entity and its potential to cause harm to health and quality of life. As Rep. Dunnam illustrated, the effects are cumulative, whether you drink one shot in Waco, one in Houston, one in San Antonio, etc. (more…)
The EPA in the last day or so has assumed the dreaded playground title of “taker backer”. Tuesday, Lisa Jackson announced that they would be putting a moratorium on all mountain top removal mining permits, which could delay 150-200 surface coal mines. Yay for the environment right? Well, not so fast. Later that day the announcement was made that they weren’t actually putting any type of hold on mining permits, and that they were simply reviewing two of them.
