Texas’ Attorney General, Greg Abbott is taking his fight with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Washington DC today.
Abbot will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on how he believes the EPA’s policies are affecting Texas.
Abbott, TCEQ and the governor have been on the warpath against the EPA for some time. Abbott, has filed lawsuits against the EPA defending Texas’ flexible permit program that allows certain industries an exemption from having to disclose pollution for each individual smokestack at a facility and allowing them to aggregate all emissions from the plant together. Click here to read an earlier blog post on Texas’ flex permit program. The TCEQ didn’t even send a representative to an EPA public meeting in Dallas about the DFW’s efforts to come into compliance with the federal clean air standards. Abbot is also challenging the EPA’s efforts to regulated greenhouse gases. In late January, Abbott sent a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders asking them to push legislation limiting the EPA’s reach.
Abbot will make an opening statement and then take questions from the committee.
Abbott is the only state attorney general scheduled to testify today, according to the committee’s witness list. Others on the list include EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, National Black Chamber of Commerce President Harry Alford and representatives from industries.
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