You really should protect this Dome from harm by contributing $10 to WendyDavisForGovernor.
Turning Texas is a new group electoral clearinghouse for Democratic races in the Lone Star State. That means Wendy Davis and every other Texas race. We welcome all contributors with an interest in and knowledge about Texas electoral politics.
The US Supreme Court today agreed to hear a challenge of
Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, the major 2007 law allowing EPA to "
regulate emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles if it found they endangered public health or welfare."
(NYT 10/15/13)
In 2009, EPA issued a finding that “elevated concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere” caused by stationary power plants as well as motor vehicles threaten the welfare of "current and future generations". Texas and other States, along with Industry and interest groups challenged the finding, charging the EPA had overstepped it's authority and lacked evidence.
The Court agreed to hear six petitions but narrowed the focus to the question of whether EPA “permissibly determined that its regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles triggered permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act for stationary sources that emit greenhouses gases.”
Last year the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected these same arguments on both the merits and the judgement that the petitioners lacked standing.
Apparently the Justices were prickly about the Appeals Court's ruling.
From the NYT
At the argument last Monday, the justices asked pointed and frustrated questions about whether the lower court had had the authority to decide the issue and whether the plaintiff, a former assistant Illinois attorney general, was covered by the newer law. The justices apparently concluded that the case was a poor vehicle for deciding the question they had agreed to review.
Jump the fancy longhorns for more...
With the upcoming election cycle for Governor and other important Texas races, State Attorney General and likely Republican candidate for Governor
Greg Abbott, as well as other Republican pols, are thrilled at the opportunity to make hay for their supporters.
AP via Austin American Statesman
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has welcomed a U.S. Supreme Court decision to hear the state's arguments against federal rules to block greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and refineries.
The court said Tuesday it would hear Texas' argument that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot regulate that pollution.
Abbott says the EPA has overstepped its authority, and that the regulations threaten Texas jobs and employers.
Abbott isn't the only one trumpeting the news:
Shilling for Oil.
Ultra Right Wing Texas Railroad Commissioner
Barry Smitherman, who is running for Abbott's vacant AG Position if he gets the GOP nomination for Governor is just as happy.
Non-Texans may not know that the three Railroad Commissioners hold some of the most powerful positions in Texas state government. What makes RR Commissioners so powerful? They regulate Fossil Fuels.
From Texas Tribune 12/3/10:
Texas has three railroad commissioners, who are elected statewide. They regulate oil and gas, which you’d never know from their title. But that’s not the only reason there’s a serious effort afoot to change the agency’s name and replace those officeholders with part-time gubernatorial appointees, as there are at most of the state’s other regulatory agencies. Another, bigger reason is that there are lily pads and launch pads in Texas government, and the Railroad Commission is a launch pad. Being a railroad commissioner is less an end than a means — a way to propel yourself into a better, higher-profile and more powerful job.
Especially for Governor.
With Abbott almost certainly the GOP gubernatorial candidate next year, Smitherman replacing him as Attorney General directly out of the Railroad Commission means Smitherman would be in prime position to run for Lt. Governor in a second Abbott term. Which necessarily would put him in line for a future gubernatorial nomination, thus laying the groundwork for a continuing GOP lock of executive power in Austin.
And who is Barry Smitheman, the man who wants to move from protecting Big Oil from EPA having a sad to the chief Enforcer of lax Texas environmental laws? Our very own Chrislove wrote about that last evening Texas Matters: AG candidate Barry Smitherman defends white supremacist groups from SPLC
Barry Smitherman, the current Texas Railroad Commission Chairman and Republican candidate to replace Greg Abbott as Attorney General, demonstrates once again why the fight to turn Texas blue is so important. The man who wants to be the state's top lawyer apparently can't even read, much less understand why an organization founded by a neo-Nazi on white supremacist principles is labeled an extremist hate group. In a state in which our current Attorney General has squandered millions of dollars on futile lawsuits and in which there is an active effort to disenfranchise entire communities of people, Smitherman's major concern is that the Southern Poverty Law Center is labeling racist organizations as "hate groups." Because the real victims in Texas aren't the thousands of poor and minority voters who will have one more major obstacle preventing them from voting, but rather the Crusaders for Yahweh. Because that's a corner a Republican contender for Attorney General wants to stand in, apparently.
This should tell Texans and non-Texans interested in Turning Texas Blue everything they need to know about what the stakes are in the upcoming cycle. Whether its rolling back Federal environmental laws to maintain the vaunted Republican "business climate" in the state (no accountability to the public welfare), cracking down on the rights of women to
determine their own health outcomes (get back in your place, woman), or simply maintaining a level of racism suitable to Tea Party wing nuts like Smitherman and
Louie Gohmert (OBAMA!!!), Texas Republicans fully intend to supply us as much of this wingnuttery as we can swallow for the next four years and beyond.
Thanks for reading, y'all.
- bastrop
If you would like to donate to the Wendy Davis campaign.
Battleground Texas
Don't forget to follow Turning Texas by clicking the burnt orange ♥. You can look for more Turning Texas diaries on Davis and other Texas Democratic races all the way through the upcoming election cycle.
Go Wendy!
Update: Please also see LakeSuperior's diary on the subject here.