Carbon regulation could ”cripple” Texas: Perry

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas Gov. Rick Perry said on Tuesday that the economy of the leading energy producing U.S. state would be “crippled” by a federal agency’s proposal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Perry urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “to suppress the urge” to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, citing the “devastating implications for Texas’ economy and energy industry.”

Responding to the EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rule-making under the Clean Air Act, Perry said in a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson that expansion of EPA regulation would create “massive costs” and the “certainty that the proposed regulation will fail to achieve the intended goals.”

The EPA has been under pressure to take steps to regulate greenhouse gas since a landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision that it must reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks. Carbon dioxide is the primary gas blamed for global warming.

Reuters