Let's Have a Little Perspective on White's Appointees

by: Elisabeth Long

Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 04:55 PM CDT

The Tribune reports that:

White has raised nearly $2 million over his years in public life from people he appointed to boards and commissions, the analysis shows. In numerous cases, he would have exceeded the limits his own campaign recommended in a proposal unveiled Wednesday.

White certainly deserves some criticism for proposing a standard that he himself has violated, but by focusing on the technicalities, the Tribune article misses the big picture.

White appointed active citizens and effective fundraisers mostly to positions on parks, library and arts boards such as the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the Houston Arts Alliance, the Houston Parks Board, and the Houston Library Board.  These are organizations that are in need of fundraising and public support but wield little to no economic power.  

Perry, on the other hand, is appointing his top fundraisers to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, the Parks and Wildlife Commission, the Texas Economic Development Corporation, the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), the Texas Transportation Commission and the UT, Texas A&M and Texas Tech Boards of Regents - entities with significant economic influence.

Both White and Perry are struggling with the reality that individuals who are engaged enough to contribute to political campaigns are likely to also be individuals who can contribute to governing our public institutions.  Perry has long been criticized for his appointments, and White deserves the same scrutiny that Perry gets from the media.  But let's try to compare apples to apples.  LCRA controls 3,300 miles of transmission lines across the state and significant water and electricity generation resources.  The Buffalo Bayou Partnership oversees 20 miles of hike and bike trails.  

The EPA takes on Texas

by: Elisabeth Long

Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 01:57 PM CDT

At issue are Texas' controversial 'flexible permits' which allow facilities to group emissions from multiple smokestacks under one permit.  In most other states, flexible permits are limited to minor emission sources, but in Texas they are given to large facilities, especially along the gulf coast.  At larger facilities, a significant number of smokestacks could fall under the same permit, allowing some smokestacks to emit over the legal limit and raising concerns about the practical enforceability of emissions limits for each smokestack.

Perry isn't taking the affront to his stellar environmental record lying down. On June 14th, 2010, State Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a federal court challenge to the EPA's actions.  The state is arguing that the EPA had a year from when TCEQ submitted the revised rules for the permitting program (1996) to act on them, but they did not do so until 14 years later.

"We are defending our flexible air permitting program because it works," said TCEQ Chairman Bryan W. Shaw in a press release. "EPA is not able to demonstrate how our program is less protective of the environment than the bureaucratic federal approach.   EPA's philosophy of more bureaucracy by federalizing state permits will not lead to cleaner air, but will drive up energy costs and kill job creation at a time when people can least afford it."

Perry has been billing the conflict as an economic and states' rights issue more than an environmental issue, which may play well with voters, but hasn't convinced the EPA to back down so far.