It’s Politics – Not Pollution!

While America was focused on New Hampshire, Al Gore was quietly using the machinery of government to set the stage for future attacks on one of his possible opponents in the 2000 presidential election — Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

In fact, Al Gore’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seems to be driving a political agenda designed to derail the Bush campaign by unfairly targeting Texas on the basis of arbitrary air quality standards.

In Houston, more than 250 Texas CSE activists united to protest against the state’s proposed air quality regulations. Despite a vast effort on the part of the Sierra Club, CSE activists outnumbered Sierra Club protesters four to one at the Jan. 31 Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) hearing. The hearing was a tremendous success for CSE — both national and local media covered the event and disseminated CSE’s message of the EPA using “junk science” for Al Gore’s political gain.

The consensus of this diverse group of activists is that Texas has been unfairly singled out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for political reasons; that the state’s record of environmental progress is being distorted.

Texas CSE’s activities were covered by Associated Press and most of the local print, radio, and television media, including FOX TV.

Peggy Venable, director of Texas CSE, stated that “after five years of steady and solid improvement, the EPA decides to put the bite on Texas. The claim that Texas’ progress in cleaning the air has somehow slowed down is bogus — this is all about Al Gore’s presidential bid and Texans know it. Texas does face challenges with regard to air quality, but we can take care of these challenges on our own. We don’t need Al Gore and the EPA using Texas as a political tool.”