Texas officials and their allies assert that regulations they consider hasty and onerous would hurt the state's vast economy, which relies on oil refineries, coal-burning power plants and manufacturing.
Those facilities have made Texas the nation's largest emitter of greenhouse gases from power plants, industrial facilities and other so-called stationary sites, according to an Environmental Defense Fund analysis of EPA data. If it were a separate country, Texas would be the seventh-biggest emitter of stationary-site greenhouse gases in the world, according to the environmental group.
Still, Texas is also among the world's largest producers of wind energy, because of a measure adopted when George W. Bush was governor.
On Jan. 2, crucial EPA regulations will kick in limiting greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial facilities. Texas is the only state refusing to enforce the new rules.
"EPA is cramming this down the throats of citizens and the states," said Howard Feldman, director of regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, another plaintiff against the EPA. "We see Texas as standing up for normal processes under the Clean Air Act."
...The EPA says it will continue its efforts to scale back greenhouse gases, regardless of Texas' resistance. In an e-mailed statement, the agency said: "The state government in Texas seems to have different priorities right now, but we have not yet given up on our efforts to work with them."