You have to love the initiative and the absolute guts it takes for a guy living in Texas to actually sue the state to try and to get them to regulate carbon emissions. Texas? Isn’t that, like, where oil was invented or something?

The lawsuit has been filed by Public Citizen in Travis County District Court in Texas and it reportedly uses language similar to lawsuits that have been victorious in 12 other states against the Bush Administration- that language being part of the case that went to the Supreme Court in 2007. The Court ruled that the federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA to consider controlling CO2.

I wonder what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has to say about this? I mean, that may be questionable science that they are talking about, but are they going to start questioning rulings that the Supreme Court makes? Not that the Court has any direct power over the Chamber of Commerce, but saying that the EPA needs to consider regulation of carbon emissions is pretty major, especially in its possible and probable implications to business- it seems the Chamber of Commerce is well behind on that argument.

Back to the lawsuit itself: Why sue Texas about this?

Well, Texas is #1 among states in human-created greenhouse gas emissions - #1.

If Texas was a country, they would rank seventh.

They need to do something about that but they aren’t taking any steps- that’s why you need to sue them. Public Citizen claims that Texas state rules bar conversation about carbon dioxide or global warming during permit disputes and even go so far as to block the collection of CO2 emissions information in Texas.

"Scientists, governments and regulatory agencies in other states, at the federal level, and internationally recognize that CO{-2} emissions contribute to global warming, thereby causing significant impacts from climate change," reads the lawsuit. "Indeed, for many years, the likelihood of such harms has been ever increasingly documented, to the point that CO{-2} now is recognized to be a very harmful air contaminant and pollutant."

Texan governor Rick Perry questions the danger of global warming and the wisdom of regulating CO2- and he appointed Dr. Bryan W. Shaw as the chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who feels the same and has been vocal about his opposition to implementing regulations around carbon emissions. Texas has a ton of land where they can build windmills- why not do that? Well, maybe they will.

Both the EPA and the Supreme Court have found reason to consider excessive carbon dioxide emissions a pollutant, though this position has been disputed by some in the industry. Public Citizen is taking what worked in a similar case in Massachusetts and applying it to Texan law. The Texas Clean Air Act says the TCEQ must regulate contaminants that are threats to the public health, safety and welfare "by all practical and economically feasible methods." So, that’s a pretty clear mandate to do something about the polluting smoke that is coming out of the coal plants, among other things.
This one will be interesting to watch!