EPA notifies Texas of plan to add Hood and Wise counties to nonattainment area

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AUSTIN – State Representatives Jim Keffer (R-Eastland) and Phil King (R-Weatherford) today called for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide scientific evidence to show why it is necessary that the EPA add Hood and Wise counties to the DFW nonattainment area. Late last week the EPA notified Texas officials that they planned to add the two counties to the current 9-county nonattainment area of: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall and Tarrant counties based on the fact that Hood and Wise counties were part of the region being developed for natural gas in the Barnett Shale region. The EPA stated that due to increased ozone and air pollution in these areas, they believed the counties should be added.

Keffer and King stated that their concerns were based on the fact that new regulations will hurt the local economies of communities that they represent in the Texas House of Representatives, very possibly killing jobs in those areas when the regulations seem to be based on incomplete information and the desire of the federal government to further encroach on Texas’ sovereignty. They also added that it would be highly irresponsible for the EPA to implement any new regulations prior to fully considering any and all costs and economic impacts on the communities in question.

“The EPA refuses to work with local and state officials and has become a rogue federal agency that continues to attack Texas’ economy,” Keffer said, “That the EPA would blame oil and gas drilling as the reason for including Hood County in the nonattainment area when drilling in this county has declined significantly is just one example where EPA’s rhetoric doesn’t match reality.”

“I’m very concerned that these new regulations are based on bad science,” King stated, “For instance, the EPA must consider the unprecedented wildfires, heat, and drought that our area has gone through during 2010 and 2011. All of these can be contributing factors to increased ozone, and I believe the EPA has overlooked these issues. The way the EPA has been operating has most Texans concerned that their motivations are much more about political gamesmanship than they are about real science and protecting Texans.”

The representatives further explained that this attempt to add new air regulations seems to be the latest attempt of the federal government to encroach on Texas’ sovereignty. Over the past couple of years, the EPA has assumed control of regulating certain manufacturing and processing plants in Texas by invalidating Texas’ own successful Flexible Permits Program; devised a regulatory scheme for “cross-state emissions,” resulting in many Texas electric generation plants planning to shut down operations; injected themselves in local oil and gas production issues; and launched a study on Texas natural gas producers’ fracking procedures. All of these functions have been previously under the authority of the state of Texas.

The EPA said in its announcement that Texas has until Feb. 29 to submit additional information it wants considered regarding the nonattainment designations.

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AUSTIN – Last week State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) was listed among the top ten rated pro-life legislators in the Texas House of Representative by Texas Right to Life. King was ranked the sixth highest pro-life legislator out of 150 in the Texas House, receiving a score of 140%.

“This past legislative session was the most pro-life session in Texas’ history, and Texas Right to Life is pleased that Representative King stood with us at each chance to protect life,” stated Director of Texas Right to Life Elizabeth Graham, “He did more than press the green button on the floor, and his willingness to go the extra mile helped pass the strongest protections for the most innocent among us.”

The top 11 pro-life House members earned scores greater than 100% based on their willingness to do more than just cast a pro-life vote. According to the organization, the top 11 made a concerted effort to ensure the strongest possible legislation passed.

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Dear Friend:

I wanted to share this news story with you in which I’m interviewed about the preparations of the Texas State Guard for hurricane season. Should we be needed, we are prepared and ready to go.  It is a pleasure to serve you in the Texas Legislature.

Thank you,

Phil King
State Representative

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Texas Guard Prepares as Irene Hits Northeast

August 27, 2011
KVUE NEWS
Jade Mingus

As the East Coast suffers through the damage of hurricane Irene, Texas soldiers prepare for a similar disaster that could hit the Gulf Coast region this hurricane season.

Saturday, members of the Texas State Guard met at Camp Mabry and planned what they would do to help the state if a hurricane hit the gulf coast.

“Hurricane season ramps up particularly between August, September and October. That’s our main focus,” said Lt. Col. Phil King, a guardsman and a State Representative from Weatherford. “What we are doing today, is reviewing protocols and making sure we are prepared to go out if we are called.”

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The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented two new rules, which should greatly concern every Texan.   If not stopped, these new regulations will prove extremely detrimental to Texas’ economy.

One rule is called the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR).  The second is the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology Rule (MACT), which is intended to reduce air pollutant emissions from coal-fired power plants.  These new federal regulations will almost certainly force many Texas power plants to shut down resulting in much higher electricity rates for Texans and potentially causing blackouts across our state.

The EPA has admitted that, combined, these regulations will cost the nation’s electric power sector tens of billions of dollars in capital investments.  Based on EPA’s projections, these regulations are among the most expensive ever proposed on the electric generation industry.  And who pays for these cost increases?  As with any business, the costs will be passed down to consumers.

So, is there an upside?  Is there a health benefit to Texans that justifies these new, costly regulations?  Well, it doesn’t appear so.  According to EPA’s own statements, the majority of the emissions targeted by the new regulations are emissions regulated by rules that are already in place!  For example, with its new MACT rule, the additional emissions regulated will only constitute 0.004 percent of the “total monetized health benefits.”   Now, I’m not an environmental engineer but that doesn’t sound like much return for tens of billions of dollars of expense.  To add federal insult to injury, Texas’ own clean air program has shown huge reductions in emissions since 2000, cutting emissions more in that time period than any other state.

National Economic Research Associates (NERA) analyzed the impact of these new EPA rules and the results are disturbing to say the least.  NERA projects that new regulations will result in a nationwide cost of $184 billion; a nationwide average electricity price increase of 11.5% (12.1% increase in Texas); a nationwide net employment loss totaling 1.44 million job-years by 2020; and 15% of the nation’s coal generating plants will have to be retired prematurely.  These statistics are staggering!

During this brutal summer, Texas’ electric grid has barely escaped blackouts.  These new EPA regulations could force electric generators to shut down 18 coal plants in Texas by as early as next January.  Barry Smitherman, the former chair of the Texas Public Utility Commission, recently stated that as much as 11,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation in Texas may be shut down, accounting for thousands of lost jobs.

So, where does this leave us?  In yet another battle with a federal agency that is simply out of control.  In an effort to get additional answers, I spoke to the new chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas and was assured that the Commission, numerous state officials, and many in the electric power industry are appealing to the EPA for a change, or at least a delay in the implementation of these new regulations. However, in the meantime, please call your elected representatives in Washington, DC and request that these rules be reconsidered. Since the EPA is an executive agency it answers to the President, however, Congress may change the statutes under which EPA operates – and that is where your voice can help.  This is a critical issue for Texas and requires our foremost attention.

State Representative Phil King serves Parker and Wise counties in the Texas House of Representatives.

The 82nd Legislative Session: LOST OPPORTUNITIES

By Pat Carlson, TEF President

The 82nd Texas Legislative Session will likely go down in history as a conservative legislative success, but with the right leadership in the House and a more conservative Senate, we could have accomplished so much more.

The images below are snapshots of the Texas Eagle Forum Legislative Score Card. A larger image will pop up by clicking on any smaller image. Our entire publication with articles on different issues regarding how your legislators voted can be downloaded here (approx 2.9mb PDF).

THE MOST CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE & SENATE

Texas Eagle Forum is pleased to honor these Texas Legislators as the most conservative in the 2011 Legislative Session. We appreciate their commitment to Texas families on both social and economic issues..

• Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury)
• Dan Patrick (R-Houston)
• Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound)
• Glenn Hegar (R-Katy)

REPRESENTATIVES

• Wayne Christian (R-Center)
• Erwin Cain (R-Como)
• Dan Flynn (R-Van)
• Phil King (R-Weatherford)
• Jodie Laubenberg (R-Parker)
• Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound)
• Ken Paxton (R-McKinney)
• Jim Landtroop (R-Plainview)
• Charles Perry (R-Lubbock)
• Van Taylor (R-Plano)
• James White (R-Hillister)
• Bill Zedler (R-Arlington)
• Leo Berman (R-Tyler)
• Cindy Burkett (R-Mesquite)
• David Simpson (R-Longview)
• Brian Hughes (R-Mineola)

In 2009, The 81st Legislative Session produced little conservative legislation because of House Speaker Joe Straus, who was elected by only 11 Republicans and all the Democrats, and who appointed half of the important committee chairmanships to Democrats, despite the fact Republicans were in the majority.

In 2010, Texas voters thought electing a two-to-one majority of conservative Republicans to the Texas House would send an unmistakable message to legislators that they wanted strong conservative leadership.

Before the session began, Texas Eagle Forum, along with other conservative organizations and like-minded Texas voters, pleaded with elected Republican representatives not to elect Straus for a second term. Unfortunately, only 15 Republicans out of 101 voted the courage of their convictions (see House vote for the names of these brave legislators). TEF considered this decision so important that we felt the vote should count for half of the points on our scorecard.

Conservatives could have seen more good bills move through the House if Speaker Straus had put strong numbers of conservatives on committees. Instead he stacked important committees with his closest allies.

The Senate, too, had its share of Republican moderates posing as conservatives.

Some Missed Opportunities:

• Speaker Straus refused to bring the highly popular TSA anti-groping bill up for vote, calling it a “publicity stunt.”

• The new Texas House Redistricting Map pits Republican incumbents against each other as payback for voting against Straus for speaker.

• The American Laws for American Court (ALAC) bill could have passed the House as a stand alone bill, but the Calendars committee would not send it to the full House for a vote. Later ALAC language was added as an amendment three times to other bills, but was removed in the Senate by committee members. Senator Duncan chose to ignore 750 phone calls to his office in support of the amendment.

Despite those setbacks, the 82nd Texas Legislative Session passed a strong sonogram bill, a voter-ID bill, new accountability for homeowner associations, a loser pays in frivolous lawsuits bill, defunded Planned Parenthood, and the legislature, not only balanced the budget with no new taxes, but cut total spending by 8.1%.

AUSTIN – State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) was named one of Texas’ most conservative legislators and received a 96 out of 100 rating this week on the Texas Eagle Forum’s 2011 Texas Legislative Scorecard.  King’s 96 rating was the second highest score given this legislative session.

“Texas Eagle Forum is proud to honor Representative Phil King as one of the most conservative Texas Legislators in the 2011 Legislative Session,” Texas Eagle Forum President Pat Carlson stated, “We appreciate his commitment to Texas families on both social and economic issues.”

Texas Eagle Forum’s scorecard is made up of 25 key votes on conservative measures during the legislative session and can be viewed at the following link: http://texaseagle.org/torch_legscorecard_11.pdf

Why does a balanced budget approach work?  It’s simple really.  The importance of a balanced budget amendment is that it forces the legislature, by force of law, to focus all budget discussions on reconciling spending and revenue.  We are free to reconcile by a number of means: raise taxes, cut spending, or a combination of the two.  But, at the end of the day, every budget debate comes back to reconciling spending and revenue.  As a legislature, we can never ignore it.  Even the most liberal members of the legislature are forced to work toward that reconciliation.  Otherwise, the Comptroller of Public Accounts will never certify the budget and we start all over again.

Texas runs on a biennial (two year) budget.  At the beginning of every biennium the Comptroller submits a biennial revenue estimate to the legislature.  This estimate tells the legislature the amount of revenue from taxes and other sources that will likely be available to spend.  The legislature then makes the decision on how they want to meet that estimate.  If, in years like this one, there is a projected shortfall in revenue, the prudent way for the legislature to reconcile the shortfall is to cut its expenses.  For instance, this legislative session the legislature cut spending by 8.1% from the previous biennium.  The Comptroller then looks at the adjustments in spending and revenue the legislature makes, and determines whether that amount of revenue is sufficient to cover the state’s obligations for the biennium.  If it is, then the budget is certified and put into place.

The difference in Washington is that reconciling revenue and spending is never the focus.  Instead, the debate is about spending limits. Reconciliation can be easily ignored.  Without the force of law compelling reconciliation it will never be realized and the federal government will continue to spend the futures of our children and grandchildren into oblivion.  The real difference between an Austin budget debate and a Washington budget debate is that the force of law compels Texas to reconcile our spending to our revenue.  Without this requirement, Texas legislators might be just as prone as congressmen are to want to “bring home the bacon” and escalate reckless spending in hopes of re-election.

State Representative Phil King serves Parker and Wise counties in the Texas House of Representatives.

by Weston Hicks -

Weston Hicks

A political hack job against Phil King was written by Aledo ISD Board Trustee Bobby Rigues. He managed to get things pretty close to exactly opposite of how they are.

Published in Parker County’s “Community News” publication, Rigues presented greedy insider big-spending interests as “grassroots” under the cover of “education first”, while presenting true grassroots fiscal responsibility interests, led by Phil King, as obstructionism.

There is some truth, however, to the charge that Representative Phil King and the conservatives are obstructionist, in that they obstruct the good ol’ boys from spending Texas into the kind of shape New Jersey and Illinois are in. King deserves a medal for that kind of obstructionism.

Rigues goes to bat for the Howard Amendment, a last ditch attempt in the special session to tap the Rainy Day Fund. The Howard Amendment was introduced after Governor Perry and House conservatives repeatedly established they would not allow our Texas savings account to beef up our budget going forward, because that’s not what savings are for.

Instead, said conservatives, we need to responsibly respond to our economic reality, something the states in serious trouble have refused to do. Conservatives had the clout to win on this principle this session.

Howard didn’t even put the amendment in until the day Governor Perry staffers quit Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign en masse, signaling the Governor may be distracted enough to let a sneaky RDF raid slide by. It was a trick Howard tried at the 11^th hour, but it didn’t work, largely due to heroic efforts by Phil King.

In setting up his attack on Representative King, Rigues ties the Howard Amendment to the “Make Education a Priority” grassroots initiative, which is very ironic.This is because it’s conservatives like Phil King who believe most strongly in putting education spending first, and therefore making education the last place to go for cuts. Unfortunately, Phil King and the conservatives weren’t in charge of the session; Speaker Joe Straus and his moderates were.

Straus moderate cardinal Jim Pitts drew up a draft budget that didn’t raise taxes so they could say they kept their conservative campaign promises, but they put massive education cuts front and center. The strategy was to call for cuts nobody could stomach so they could raise taxes and spend up the savings. In fact, they looked for waste and cuts almost nowhere else, commissioning a special committee to find these kind of savings that never even met.

However, with the exception of some ugly budget gimmicks that will put the 83^rd legislature in a hole, the conservatives didn’t allow this moderate strategy to work.  The message was sent to the good ol’ boys that Texas will make tough cuts when the alternative is spending up the savings and raising taxes in a recession. After all, if even Texas can’t do the responsible thing, everyone is in trouble.

Rigues used several tricks in his op-ed. For example, he characterized budget cuts as “kicking the can down the road”, when delaying budget cuts is what everyone else in the country uses the phrase “kick the can down the road” to describe. Liberals and moderates badly wanted to kick the can down the road, but Phil King and the conservatives wouldn’t allow it.

Rigues reached again, characterizing Phil King’s successful efforts to strip the Howard Amendment as somehow wrong. But, as even Rigues’s article implies, the more people found out about the sneaky Howard Amendment, the more it lost support. See, that’s how unprincipled insider legislation behaves – it usually wilts when light is introduced. Principled, voter-driven legislation blossoms under light, which is why Phil King’s efforts got easier with publicity.

Rigues lauded Wendy Davis for her hollow support for education, which was really support for raising revenues to keep special interest dollars safe. After all, Wendy Davis never spoke out against the lack of interest in finding cuts in the Pitts draft budget, and its risky use of education budgets to try to break the Texas appetite for fiscal sanity.

Rigues isn’t a reliable guide for conservatives in Parker County. His op-ed he was as sneaky as the Texas good ol’ boys were this session in protecting special interests and demonizing the heroes of Texas voters – conservatives like Phil King.

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Weston Hicks researches and writes about associations in the Texas political realm, media choices, and political strategy. Over the past year he has advised on grassroots and voter initiatives. He has a B.A. in History from the University of Texas at El Paso and a J.D. from University of Texas School of Law. He enjoys spending time with wife and three children, reading theology and political theory, and watching FC Barcelona. You can reach him at whicks@agendawise.com.

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Bobby Rigues’ article: Statements of Reality