National Public Air Pollution

In a recent segment of NPR’s all things considered John Burnett stated, “Texas is the country's largest emitter of global warming gases.” This came as a shock to me; I always assumed it was California. But the story was uplifting as it mentioned how the mayors in some of the State’s biggest cities are working together to change the mind of more high ranking officials. Burnett also mentioned how, “State Sen. Kirk Watson, a Democrat representing Austin, proposed a bill that would have merely set up a task force to study climate change. Though it passed the Senate, it died in the House.” I remember when that guy was mayor of Austin, so it’s nice to see that Green is moving up in the world.

Things move at a slower pace here in Texas then the rest of the country so the fact that we are still a bit behind on the environmental ball compared to the other 35 states that have climate action plans in place or under consideration is of no surprise to me. Especially when our own Governor, Rick Perry, mentioned recently, “that the largest source of carbon dioxide is Al Gore's mouth” it gives some of us a feeling of environmental unease. This state lives and breathes pollution, Gas guzzling trucks and Suv’s are the first thing that come to mind when you think about our highways. Not to mention all those pretty little twinkling lights that comes from oil refineries upon any number of great Texas cities.

The economy here is Texas is dependent upon those pollution causing companies and they are fighting environmental change every step of the way. With all the money in the corner of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the Gulf Coast Lignite Coalition, the Texas Chemical Council and the Texas Automobile Dealers Association I’m sure the fight to get bills like the one Senator Watson would like to pass will be an uphill battle.

But we have some beautiful things on the horizon. With wind power in West Texas and Willie’s Bio Diesel maybe the, “out of the box” thinking of some whimsical locals will inspire more of us to do the right things and maybe make this state not look so bad. Burnett also statedthat on the bright side of things, “There are signs that that things are changing in Texas. Earlier this year, the state's largest utility, TXU, dropped plans to build eight coal-fired plants, in part, because of a popular uprising over their impact on air quality and the atmosphere.” So public opinion may actually cause change here in Texas.