States Rights

Open Fax to Gov. Perry (TX):

Dear Gov. Perry,
According to Jeff Johnson writing in the June 19 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the EPA is proposing reductions on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Let’s not be deceived by the use of the word “proposing”. You can be sure that the EPA means to establish a reduced carbon dioxide emission standard and enforce it as a regulation.
The EPA has the power to do this, based on the Clean Air Act established by Congress. The Clean Air Act did not establish that carbon dioxide was an air contaminant. That interpretation was introduced by the EPA based upon Pres. Obama’s agenda to convert the US and the world as much as possible to the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar.
The Obama agenda is economically unsound and is not based on scientific fact that carbon dioxide is an air contaminant. However, that is not the main point of this fax.
I draw to your attention that, if Jeff Johnson is correct, the EPA proposal would require state governments to develop plans by June 2016 that would result in a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and that the reduction would actually be achieved in 2030.
I regard this is a brazen attempt on the part of the EPA to direct operations of state governments.
As I remember the Constitution, it basically set out what the federal government could and could not do, and wherever there was no specificity, state governments had control. I do not recall anywhere in the Constitution that the federal government, including any of its agencies, had the right to require state governments to enforce federal laws or agency regulations.
The question to you then is whether you intend to allow the EPA to browbeat you into a ridiculous plan to control carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and presumably enforce established regulations as state law sometime in the future.
May I strongly suggest that you advise the EPA that you have a sufficient workload in enforcing state laws, and have no time to be involved in enforcing federal laws or regulations, which are not your constitutional responsibility?