A Federal Court told Texas today that – surprise, surprise – it has to follow the law. If Texas has a mess, it’s okay for the EPA to step in and clean it up.

This is the third time the courts have told Texas they won’t block the EPA from implementing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change.

Starting January 2, states are supposed to issue permits to the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, such as power plants.

Texas refused, calling them a job-killing power grab.

The EPA said it will take over the process and issue the permits itself.

Texas sued to delay that implementation “for more study”.

“This is not just Texas playing politics,” explained Buddy Garcia, a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. “This is about a need for due process, stakeholder input, achievable regulations, and rational guidance. This is about a need for partnerships with EPA as well as necessary direction from Congress on a comprehensive energy plan, not just a politically driven anti-carbon agenda. We all want improved air and water quality while allowing production and minimizing environmental impacts, but this should not be about EPA control, politics, or using the Clean Air Act to enact goals Congress rejects.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” says Jim Marston of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Governor Perry and Attorney General Abbott have now wasted millions of taxpayer dollars losing multiple frivolous lawsuits that only served to protect major polluters from a law that all other 49 state are following. As the Legislature convenes this week facing an estimated $27 billion dollar budget shortfall, we can only hope that the Governor and Attorney General will decide to fire Exxon’s Yankee lawyers who he has representing his office and let Texas use that money for state services that help people, not on polluting their air.”

Here’s the response from the office of the Texas Attorney General:

“The EPA has overstepped its legal boundaries and exceeded its authority. While the court declined to proactively prohibit the EPA from continuing its federalization effort, today’s ruling did not reach the heart of the State’s claim and does not affect Texas’ ability to continue pursuing its legal challenge against the agency. With the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of Texas families and businesses at risk, Texas will continue to challenge the EPA’s unlawful overreach.”

Nice. If you want to break the law, accuse your opponents of… breaking the law.

And not all Texans feel that way – the cartoon at the top of the page is from Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle – not from some namby-pamby San Francisco liberal. In fact, large swaths of the business community are perfectly fine with cleaning up their act.

There are real-world repercussions to this drawn-out civil war: the San Antonio Current points out that there are more than 150 construction projects around the state that would be affected, and dragging this out may actually kill jobs. Steve Cochran of the Environmental Defense Fund says if Texas really wanted to be “friendly to business”, they’d just get on with it.

“Three strikes should mean ‘you’re out’ in this case. The state government in Texas has now filed three cases in the federal courts to block EPA’s greenhouse gas pollution reduction policies, and it has been rejected three times. If Texas put half the effort into carrying out greenhouse gas pollution control measures that it put into fighting them, EPA would not need to be involved. Plus, Texas businesses could then enjoy the same certainty that businesses in every other state will have.”

GOP lawmakers have also introduced bills to block the EPA from implementing the regs, although it’s pretty clear that President Obama would veto them. So the dance continues.

(Cartoon © Nick Anderson at the Houston Chronicle)