Texas Dept. of Agriculture, Attorney General, Governor Challenge EPA’s Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases

AUSTIN - Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples today joined Attorney General Greg Abbott and Gov. Rick Perry in challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 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 said. "As a regulatory agency, the Texas Department of Agriculture is required to impose rules based on sound science - not political science. Not only does state law require this, but it is also a fundamental principle by which regulators all across the U.S. have always lived. EPA has ignored extensive research on greenhouse gas emissions and based this significant regulation on faulty data."

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. Global climate change is an issue that requires careful analysis of all available data and options. 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," Commissioner Staples said. "Agriculture is a $106 billion industry in Texas, and 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. For centuries they have invested in science and research to ensure not only the preservation of our natural resources, but the availability of the safest, most affordable and most abundant food supply in the world."

Watch video from the press conference: