Bravo, Rick Perry

Texas Hold ‘Em: Gov. Perry Hates Climate-Change Bill, Loves Clean Energy - Environmental Capital - WSJ

Yesterday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry took aim at the federal government, salting his critique with a dose of unabashed global-warming skepticism.

He criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s April ruling that rising levels of carbon dioxide present a hazard to human health. The governor, a former West Texas rancher and Texas A&M University graduate, said: “The idea that CO2 is a toxic substance is a bit hard for this agricultural scientist to get his arms around when … Nobel laureates have talked CO2 in a very positive sense when you talk about the green revolution.”

But he saved his sharpest barbs for the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill and its cap-and-trade provision to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. He said it amounted to “the largest tax increase in the history of our country.” It would devastate the Texas economy–and for what?

He’s not sure there’s much to be worried about. “This is going to come down to this: Are the Democrats in Congress willing to stand up and say we are fixing to raise everyone’s cost of living in America on some science that still is yet to be solidified?”