Joe Barton - "Texas Air Quality is Excellent"; TX Air Quality Regulators "The Best In The Country"

FORT WORTH -- Texas' environmental regulators are "the best in the country," and "Texas air quality is excellent," U.S. Rep. Joe Barton said Friday during an event that highlighted the state's ongoing scrap with federal authorities over air quality.

Barton, an Arlington Republican, and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Tyler Republican, visited the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Fort Worth office to learn about its mobile air monitoring program and speak with local reporters about the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last year, the EPA rejected the state's unique flexible permitting program as too lenient. Texas regulators set a general limit on how much air pollution an entire facility can release rather than individual production limits. EPA officials have said that approach has led to some refineries emitting far more pollutants than should be allowed under federal rules.

"The federal government sets the standard, but then the states implement it," Barton said. "I think Texas has done an excellent job of not only implementing the standards but of proving they're in compliance." For years, Texas air quality issues have been regulated via a complicated patchwork of rules from the commission and the EPA. Gohmert said the EPA shouldn't take over industrial air pollution oversight that the state is already handling properly.

EDIT

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/27/2953200/republican-lawmakers-from-texas.html

:shrug:

does require an emissions test to tag vehicles. I'll give 'em that.

Meanshile just north of the Red River you can tag any piece of shit vehicle. Saw a vehicle here on the road the other day that had no tail lights. I don't mean it had burned out taillights - I mean it didn't even have frickin receptacles for the bulbs.