Traveling to West Texas recently, I marveled at the wind farms that appear to have sprung up between Sterling City and San Angelo.  It is a sign of the times. 

Many states are clamoring to be green, and though Texas has programs in place to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, it has refused to jump on the global warming regulatory bandwagon. 

It appears that whatever Texas is doing, we are doing it right.

While a number of states have created climate change commissions with action plans relying on regulations, mandates and taxes, Texas has considered, and rejected, the need to regulate greenhouse gases, instead embracing a free-market approach.

Global warming schemes increase energy costs. Affordable and plentiful energy is the cornerstone of a good economy.  And Texans are enjoying a relatively good economy. 

If Texas were a separate nation, it would have the 10^th largest economy in the world. It has consistently been ranked one of the best states in the nation for doing business.

While many states are facing budget shortfalls, Texas is experiencing another huge budget surplus. 

Yep, Texas is doing something right.

As the Legislature convenes in January 2009, Texas will likely have a budget surplus of over $14 million.  This is at a time when 29 states face budget shortfalls totaling $48 billion in 2009.

The state facing the most critical shortfall is California with a whopping $22.2 billion deficit, over 21 percent of the current budget.  California also has aggressively embraced global warming policies, which can be a major drag on economic growth.

Texans aren’t eager for their state to be like California – or to be the green policy laboratory for what have proven to be very costly taxes, regulations and freedom-limiting policies. 

Most experts believe that the United States can’t do anything that would make a noticeable difference to global average temperatures because of rapidly growing emissions in the developing world.  If the whole country can’t make a difference, individual state policies create a lot of economic pain for truly zero environmental gain.

Despite this obvious flaw, environmentalists have been successful at encouraging some states to do what they have been unable to get the national or international community to fully embrace.  Implementing climate change schemes incrementally may be part of the radical environmentalists’ game plan for taking control of our lives; but if so, Texas isn’t suiting up.

Texas has some unique challenges.  We provide 60 percent of the nation’s petrochemicals and about 30 percent of its gasoline and diesel fuel.

We have our own power grid, and produce 10 percent of the electricity generated in the country.

Around 70 percent of our electric capacity comes from natural gas-fired generation, and although natural gas prices have gone up 252 percent since the end of 2001, electricity prices have risen about 27 percent.

The Governor’s Competitiveness Council recently reported that Texas’ deregulated power market has helped shield consumers from some volatility in natural gas prices.  But our growing population and economy require more energy, which means more coal, nuclear generation, natural gas, and wind power.

Gov. Rick Perry has flung down the gauntlet.  Texas will lead the nation in becoming more energy independent.  But we will solve this problem the Texas way, which precludes spending money on global warming schemes and dictating citizens’ behavior.

Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams contends that Texans will not settle for the proposition that a healthy environment has to come at the expense of a healthy economy. He, too, has worked to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit to address both challenges.

Texans believe in incentives, not penalties, to fuel efficiency.  But Texans need more information.

Americans for Prosperity launched a hot air education tour, and has traveled to 20 states and 32 cities across the country including Houston and Dallas.  The 70-foot tall hot air balloon reading “Global Warming Alarmism: Lost Jobs, Higher Taxes, Less Freedom.”

According to Phil Kerpen, AFP policy director, the numerous energy taxes and regulatory schemes being proposed internationally, federally, and locally in the name of fighting global warming are the most immediate threat to freedom and prosperity. The costs associated with some of these proposals — both in dollars and lost liberty — are staggering.

The Lieberman-Warner federal legislation proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would directly hit Texans’ pocketbooks.  Approximately 100,000 jobs would be lost by 2020, disposable household income would drop as much as $3,384; and gasoline prices would increase between 76 percent to 147 percent, with electricity and natural gas prices increasing as much as 145 percent, according to a study by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation.  Low- income families would be hit hardest.

And while climate alarmists have bombarded citizens with apocalyptic scenarios and pressured some states into environmental political correctness, Texas has just said “no”.

Spending money on global warming schemes and dictating citizens’ behavior is not the Texas way.

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