Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples has joined Attorney General Greg Abbott and Gov. Rick Perry in challenging the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The petition outlines how EPA has ignored major scientific conclusions and questions the federal government decision to regulate greenhouse gas emissions based on fragile claims.
"EPA's move to regulate greenhouse gases would impose devastating rules on those Texans who fuel one of our state's largest economic sectors – farmers and ranchers," Commissioner Staples says.
"Not only does state law require this, but it is also a fundamental principle by which regulators all across the United States have always lived. EPA has ignored extensive research on greenhouse gas emissions and based this significant regulation on faulty data."
Ramifications For Farmers
Last December, EPA ruled that greenhouse gases were harmful to the environment, despite scientific evidence that suggests otherwise. Now the agency is planning to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act, which could mean costly mandates for farmers and ranchers.
Attorney General Abbott's legal challenge will focus on the inadequacies of the process EPA followed in triggering Clean Air Act regulation. EPA failed to perform the precise study required, and, instead, relied on flawed theories.
"Ninety-seven percent of land in Texas is privately owned, and more than 80 percent of land in the state is in some form of agricultural use," Staples says. "As some of our state's first environmentalists, farmers and ranchers know they must take care of the land in order for it to take care of them."
source : cottonfarming
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