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<DIV class=timestamp>September 29, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">E.P.A. Is Longtime Favorite Target for
Perry</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per
title="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/john_m_broder/index.html?inline=nyt-per
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/john_m_broder/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>JOHN M. BRODER</A> and <A class=meta-per
title="More Articles by Kate Galbraith"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/kate_galbraith/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>KATE GALBRAITH</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>Gov. <A class=meta-per
title="http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/candidates/rick-perry?inline=nyt-per
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/candidates/rick-perry?inline=nyt-per">Rick
Perry</A> of Texas has built a political career running against Washington, and
no agency more symbolizes what he considers the meddlesome and economy-choking
evils of the federal government than the <A class=meta-org
title="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environmental_protection_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environmental_protection_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Environmental
Protection Agency</A>. </P>
<P>Mr. Perry’s conservative views on business costs, states’ rights, job
creation, energy policy and global competitiveness — the core of his governing
philosophy — are illuminated most vividly in his clashes with the E.P.A. over
issues like pesticide regulation and <A class=meta-classifier
title="Recent and archival news about global warming."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">global
warming</A>. </P>
<P>From his earliest days as head of the Texas Department of Agriculture to his
current campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he has struck a
consistent antiregulatory chord. </P>
<P>He brags that he has significantly <A
title="http://governor.state.tx.us/files/press-office/TxEnvironRecord.pdf
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://governor.state.tx.us/files/press-office/TxEnvironRecord.pdf">reduced
air pollution</A> over his decade-plus tenure by working with businesses and
that he does not need new overbearing mandates from environmental nannies in
Washington. </P>
<P><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000>But E.P.A. officials and independent analysts
outside government said that Mr. Perry was claiming credit for improvements in
air quality brought in large measure by the very federal laws he has resisted
and railed against, and that air pollution in Texas remains worse than in nearly
every other state. </FONT></STRONG></P>
<P>“His constituents are benefiting from the <A class=meta-classifier
title="More articles about the Clean Air Act."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/clean_air_act/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">Clean
Air Act</A> that the E.P.A. is enforcing,” said Janice E. Nolen, assistant vice
president for national policy at the <A
title="American Lung Association home page."
href="http://www.lungusa.org/">American Lung Association</A>. “It’s happening in
Texas, but not only in Texas, which tells us that it’s federal action that is
responsible.” </P>
<P><A title="Faculty home page."
href="http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/da7387/">David E. Adelman</A>, professor
of environmental law at the University of Texas Law School, said the state had
made progress in reducing pollution, but still had a long way to go. “For the
most part, Texas has lowered its toxic emissions, but so has essentially every
other state in the country,” he said, referring to airborne toxins like benzene
and butadiene. “The key point to recognize is that Texas started so much higher
than everyone else.” </P>
<P>Catherine Frazier, a Perry campaign spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed
statement, “If elected president, the governor’s energy priorities will be
centered around scaling back the E.P.A.’s intrusive, misguided and job-killing
policies, which will empower states to foster their own energy resources without
crippling mandates and open the doors for our nation to pursue and strengthen an
all-of-the-above energy approach.” </P>
<P>Ms. Frazier said that Texas had achieved large reductions in pollution by
following its own path and asserted that some federal actions were driven by
politics rather than science. </P>
<P>Mr. Perry used more colorful language this month in addressing a <A
class=meta-classifier title="More articles about the Tea Party movement."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/tea_party_movement/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">Tea
Party</A> group in Florida. </P>
<P>“Somebody has to tell the E.P.A. that we don’t need you monkeying around and
fiddling around and getting in our business with every kind of regulation you
can dream up,” he said. “You’re doing nothing more than killing jobs. It’s a
cemetery for jobs at the E.P.A.” </P>
<P>The main environmental battles of his governorship have centered on air
pollution. Texas, with its large presence of <A class=meta-classifier
title="More articles about oil."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleum-and-gasoline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">oil</A>
refineries, chemical plants, cement kilns and other dirty industries, has
struggled with emissions of both toxic pollutants and smog-forming compounds.
Mr. Perry has repeatedly challenged federal regulators, in court and in public
statements, over enforcement of the Clean Air Act, arguing that the state’s
unique, flexible, business-friendly approach is more effective than the federal
strategy for controlling air quality. </P>
<P>Texas is also the largest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases in the country — and the only state that has refused to abide by nascent
federal greenhouse gas regulations. As a result, the E.P.A. seized control of
greenhouse gas permits issued in the state early this year. </P>
<P>Republican politicians in Texas have long thrived on lashing out against
federal regulation, but critics say Mr. Perry has taken it to new levels,
picking fights with the E.P.A. even when it is not in the state’s interest. </P>
<P>E.P.A. officials declined to comment on the record about their relations with
Mr. Perry, saying they did not want to insert themselves into the presidential
campaign. But they say they have worked cooperatively with lower-level Texas
officials, who often seek federal technical guidance and money to address
environmental problems. Recently, for example, the E.P.A. paid for and installed
air quality monitors near several natural gas wells at the request of Texas
officials. </P>
<P>The fights have been so bitter and the progress on air quality so hard-won in
the Perry years that some environmentalists practically wax nostalgic for Mr.
Perry’s predecessor, George W. Bush, who as governor signed a bill intended to
clean up old <A class=meta-classifier title="More articles about coal."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/coal/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">coal</A>
plants and put Texas on course to becoming the leading wind-power state. </P>
<P>“Bush was far better as governor in terms of his environmental interests,”
said Tom Smith, the director of the Texas office of the advocacy group Public
Citizen. </P>
<P>No one disputes that during Mr. Perry’s tenure, the state’s air has become
much cleaner. Ozone emissions fell by 27 percent from 2000 to 2009 — a greater
drop than in any other state, according to the <A title="TCEQ home page"
href="http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/">Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality</A>, the state’s environmental monitor. Air emissions of toxic chemicals
fell 41 percent over the same period, the agency said. </P>
<P>Houston, which had the worst smog problem in the nation during Mr. Bush’s
last years as governor, has substantially cleaned up its air:<A
title="Commission statistics."
href="http://www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/airsuccess/others"> in 2007 it had
just 38 bad ozone days, compared with 100 for Los Angeles</A>. Houston remains
out of compliance with federal ozone regulations, however, as does Dallas-Fort
Worth, and this year the numbers in some cities are expected to be worse than
last year’s as a result of the extreme heat all summer. </P>
<P>Mr. Perry takes credit for the improvements, attributing them to state
programs like flexible permitting, a system in which pollution output is capped
according to a plant’s entire output rather than smokestack by smokestack. Air
quality progress, the governor has said, has come despite what he consistently
derides as orders from Washington. </P>
<P>Mr. Perry assailed the clean air rule that a Texas power generation company
blamed this month as the reason it will have to close power plant units and lay
off 500 workers. “Yet again, this administration is ignoring Texas’ proven track
record of cleaning our air while creating jobs, opting instead for more stifling
red tape,” Mr. Perry said in a <A
title="Perry press release on Luminant job loss announcement."
href="http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/16589/">statement.</A> </P>
<P>Tensions with the E.P.A. have increased strikingly since the Obama
administration appointed a new regional chief, <A title=Biography.
href="http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6ra.html">Al Armendariz</A>, an El Paso
native. Mr. Armendariz, unlike many past regional E.P.A. chiefs, has an
engineering background and is a former professor at Southern Methodist
University. </P>
<P>Ken Kramer, director of the Texas chapter of the <A
title="Lone Star chapter of Sierra Club"
href="http://texas.sierraclub.org/">Sierra Club</A>, said, “This definitely has
been the most confrontational that I’ve seen in the last couple of decades,
almost to the point of being personal in terms of Perry lashing out at
Armendariz.” </P>
<P>Mr. Perry and Mr. Armendariz have clashed over flexible permitting, practiced
by Texas since the early 1990s. The E.P.A. argued that the permits allowed for
too much overall pollution and were impossible to police. Texas has hit back
against what Mr. Perry called an intrusive regulatory regime imposed by
“environmental statists.” Ultimately, Texas lost the battle, and most of the
facilities are making a transition to standard E.P.A. rules. </P>
<P>Mr. Perry has reserved special wrath for the Obama administration’s intention
to regulate climate-altering gases. Mr. Perry, who <A
title="Texas Tribune article."
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/us/15ttperry.html">was a supporter of Al
Gore’s 1988 presidential campaign</A>, has denounced climate scientists as
grant-seeking frauds and the effort to control greenhouse gases as a “contrived,
phony mess.” </P>
<P>Texas led more than a dozen states in <A
title="Texas greenhouse gas lawsuit announcement"
href="http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/14253/">suing</A> the
E.P.A. to halt its greenhouse gas regulation program and has refused to
participate in the federal permitting system that every other state now follows.
The case is pending. </P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P>John M. Broder reported from Washington, and Kate Galbraith, who writes for
The Texas Tribune, which produces a twice-weekly local section in the Texas
editions of The New York Times, reported from Austin.
</P></DIV></NYT_AUTHOR_ID><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
<DIV
class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></NYT_TEXT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>_________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
title="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com
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