Texas Global Warming Plan Advocates Misguided

The following statement was made today by Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy’s state director, Peggy Venable, in response to the TNRCC’s rejection of the petition to implement the Kyoto Protocol in Texas:

“Environmental groups are using the global warming issue to try to force Gov. Bush to take a stand on the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty signed by President Clinton over two years ago but soundly rejected by the Senate in a bi-partisan vote of 95-0.

“The global warming treaty is bad public policy, bad for the United States, and is simply bad politics. Moreover, it’s bad for Texas. Consumers could pay 50 to 60 cents more a gallon at the gas pumps, electricity bills could double and job losses would total 124,600 in Texas alone according to the economic forecasting company WEFA.

“A state action plan makes no sense. Global warming – if it is occurring at all –is not regional. After all, we’re not talking “regional warming”.

“No threat exists. According to the U.S. National Climate Data Center in Asheville, NC, Texas has experienced no statistically meaningful long-term change in statewide summer or winter temperatures during the last 100 years, nor has any meaningful long-term change in statewide annual precipitation levels.

“The efforts appear to be an attempt to either implement a treat that the US Senate has not ratified, or to politicize our environment. Texans should not stand for this type of election-year grandstanding.

“Implementation of a plan to attempt to address global warming in Texas would produce no discernable environmental, public health or climatic benefits.”