President Obama wants to be a two-term President. He says it's not important to him, but I strongly suspect it is. Winning a second term is going to be something of a challenge for President Obama based on the current state of the economy and the high unemployment numbers. The question then becomes, "How can President Obama win with the current economy?" The answer is simple--destroy the competition to the point where the economy is irrelevant.
The current example of this is the EPA's attack on Texas. Rick Perry is emerging as a possible presidential candidate. One of the issues he will run on will be the Texas economy. The Texas economy is a result of a number of conscious decisions--no personal income tax, tort reform that discouraged frivolous lawsuits--both medical and otherwise, and an aggressive development of the state's natural energy. These policies have resulted in a major migration of businesses from other states into Texas. Since there doesn't seem to be a lot of scandal to be found on Rick Perry as a candidate, the Obama administration will use the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to attack the prosperity and growth of the State of Texas. You think I'm kidding. Watch.
An article at Hot Air reports that:
"...And in spite of being by far the largest electric power producer of the 50 states, and heavily reliant on coal, Texas has been steadily reducing its emissions of the EPS's least-favored compounds from coal combustion (e.g., sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide). Its emissions of NOx and SO2 are substantially lower than the national average; Texas is ranked the 11th lowest in NOx emissions (.098 lb/mmBtu in 2009, versus a national average of .159 lb/mmBtu), and 24th in SO2 (.309 lb/mmBtu in 2009 versus a national average of .458 lb/mmBtu)."
However, that has not stopped the EPA from attacking the state. In January 2010, the EPA decided that the Texas air-permit program was invalid and every facility in the state operating under that permit would have to be re-permitted. The argument was that Texas was measuring the pollution from the entire facility--the EPA wanted separate measurements from every area of the facility. Obviously this will be more expensive with very questionable results. The second aspect of the attack on Texas is the war on coal. The Texas Public Policy Foundation submitted a report to Congress in March saying that the new EPA regulations will shut down 5700 MW of electrical generating capacity--about one-twelfth of peak demand. The new regulations also make no allowance for increased energy demands in the State of Texas in the coming years. The third attack on Texas energy is in the area of natural gas. Please follow the link above to Hot Air to read the details on this. It is an amazing story.
The problem here is the use of a government agency for political purposes. I am sure this instance of the EPA being used politically is not new, but it needs to be stopped in its tracks. The article lists a group of states that support the EPA in this action. Oddly enough, the list includes many of the states with the largest deficits, highest unemployment, highest taxes, etc. If the states are the laboratories for the federal government, we need to pay more attention to Texas and less attention to Washington and the EPA.
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