Texas alone pollutes more than Canada

[Ilsa]

I live in Texas and this makes me want to move. I am even a bit embarrassed that our 15 million (?) residents produce this much greenhouse gas. OF course, the agricultural industry contributes alot of this.

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/story/3442.html

Texas alone pollutes more than Canada

September 13, 2006 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY RANDY LEE LOFTIS

SNIP

During the past three decades, the water in Texas' coastal bays has warmed by 3 degrees Fahrenheit. The state scientist who discovered that big increase says it is not proof alone of global warming on home shores, but it is worrisome.

Texas, however, is as much a global warming culprit as it is a victim. Already No. 1 among all U.S. states in greenhouse gas emissions and seventh worldwide - emitting more than Canada or the United Kingdom - Texas could be about to sanction enormous increases in the carbon dioxide it sends into the atmosphere.

The approval of 16 new power plants that burn coal, by far the most carbon-intensive fuel for making electricity, would add an estimated 117 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, more than the individual emissions from 33 other states and 177 countries.

Still, Texas has no formal strategy on global warming and no plans to order reductions in the carbon dioxide that the state's industries, vehicles and farms release into the atmosphere. California, by contrast, approved a bill last week to slash emissions by 2020 back to 1990 levels.

SNIP

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. You Texans should reply with:

No we don't! Bush is from Connecticut!

[redqueen]

6. ...

:spank:

:hi:

[Ishoutandscream2]

16. I'm sorry. I don't get it.

Being a dense, arrogant Texan, I don't get it.

[iverglas]

17. ah, now that one I think I got

It you take total Texas pollution and subtract the pollution spewed into the world by the mere existence of George W Bush, assuming that the latter has been ascribed to Texas in this calculation ... well then Texas comes out smelling like a rose.

;)

(Hey, my guess, anyhow!)

[Lautremont]

2. That may be true, but Canada, I'm sorry to say,

has an awful lot of work to do also. Our emissions production is still disproportionately high.

[Telly Savalas]

27. But with Harper's "Made in Canada" solution

we can cut emissions by an outstanding 1.6% within a mere 75 years!

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Mind-boggling! K&R.

[geek tragedy]

4. Well, Texas has about 2/3 the population of Canada

so the number isn't totally out of whack.

[rodeodance]

5. this is the outcome of a have a lax Fed system--TX will effectly cancel

out any good that arises from CA!

[Yupster]

7. Texas has about 23 million

people today.

[Ilsa]

20. The number I mentioned was the last one I could remember.

No big surprise that it is this heavily populated now.

[rainbow4321]

8. Dallas joins fight against new coal plants

http://www.stopthecoalplant.org/

-------------------------------------
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091406dnmetcoal.694332e.html

Dallas officially entered a fight against new coal-burning power plant construction in Texas, as the City Council unanimously voted Wednesday morning to join the Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition and contribute $10,000 to a legal fund.

<snip>
The mayor and other council members have argued that TXU Corp.'s plan to build 11 coal plants throughout Texas would lead to a further decline in the state's air quality. They have urged TXU - and several other companies that together plan to build six other coal-fired plants - to consider alternatives, including nuclear power.

TXU spokeswoman Kimberly Morgan says the company has no intentions of amending its plan and that it will not rescind permit applications already filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

TXU's 11 proposed plants would together produce 8,600 megawatts of power and are necessary to feed Texans' ever-expanding need for energy, the company said. TXU's existing plants produce 18,300 megawatts, according to company data, and the company announced on August 31 that it plans to build three nuclear plants in Texas by 2020.

[aaronbees]

28. What's with the resurgent fascination with coal plants?

Two coal plants being proposed within an hour's drive from me. Texas response to environmental problems: make 'em worse!

[Baclava]

9. Texan's response: "Canada...making the world safe from seals"

Let the Canucks stay home and buy their own gas and cigs...the mooches.

[iverglas]

10. I'm sorry, but I'm confused

Are you speaking for some unnamed archetypal right-wing asshole Texan?

If so, I'm not getting his/her point. What do Canadians' shopping habits have to do with the consumption habits of Texans -- even in the mind of an archetypal right-wing asshole Texan?

[Baclava]

12. "All furriners should keep their noses out of our bidness."

But Canadian football does suck.

[iverglas]

13. oh absolutely

Canadian football sucks. But then Canadian hockey sucks, all basketball and tennis suck, golf sucks stupid little white balls, and baseball generally sucks, unless you're actually sitting there in the sunshine reading a Saturday paper while it goes on. US football sucks worse that them all though, because for some reason the crowd noise level on the teevee apparently has to be painfully loud just to hear what the announcers are saying. Even Brit soccer broadcasts don't have that problem; don't you guys got any of that modern technology stuff? The only thing that sucks worse than US football is car racing ...

So anyhow, Texas could maybe measure its porcine consumption patterns againt, oh, football fields ...


HAHAHAHA. (Isn't that how everything gets measured down there??)

[Baclava]

14. Phfffffftp....all Texas teams suck

I'll be in Jacksonville this Monday Night.
The noise of us Steeler fans will be deafening...we OWN their house.

[INDIA]

31. Awesome...

Wish I could be there. That's a great picture, but can't compare to the superbowl. 90% in the stands were cheering for the good guys.

[Ishoutandscream2]

15. So, I'm saying this, huh?

I'm a Texan, so I guess I said this. From an informative OP to more personal Texas bashing. So typical.

[Xenotime]

11. It's going to get worse...

The slogan, if Kinky is elected, will be "Why the Hell not?" for everything.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

19. It's already gotten so bad over the past 15 years

I live 50 miles outside of Austin in the Hill Country. When I moved here most days were clear and you could see the hills in the distance and the sky was so blue! Now, some days the haze is so bad it resembles fog shrouding the hills and dulling the sky. There's never a perfectly clear day anymore, never.

I used to live in L.A., the Houston of now reminds me of L.A of then.

[stepnw1f]

18. That Is Very Disturbing

but given Bush and Delay were down there for so long, I am not a bit suprised. This is one more warning to America of what happens when Republicans are in charge. They will make money even at the expense of killing folks. They have become nothing but a group of sociopaths.

[Ilsa]

21. They remind me of Sarumon in The Two Towers when he

is speaking of building his army worthy of Isengard, and he tells the orcs to burn everything, let the fires of industry consume everything.

[stepnw1f]

22. That's all the Trilogy Reminded Me Of

Seriously. I read all three, actually four, including the "Hobbit" when I was 14-15 and enjoyed it immensely. But while seeing the movie Trilogy, all I could see were parallels.

[MountainLaurel]

36. From what I understand

Tolkein was warning about the repercussions of the Industrial Revolution with some of those plotlines.

[mom cat]

23. I am sure that at least half of it comes from the Houston area.

[Ilsa]

24. Alot of fertilizer runoff from farming and landscaping

is running off into the bays and making the fish unedible. There are also alot of chemical plants between Houston and Corprus Christi that produce some odors that we smell early in the morning 35 miles away. (Dow, Formosa, etc)

A friend who did some clinical work in speech therapy as she was getting this masters degree said they had run into alot of kids in that area with learning difficulties and birth defects. I think Corpus Christi's pediatric medical groups and the state have also recently declared that they get more than their share of infants with birth defects along the coast. I think pollution has alot to do with it. If the doctors are telling OB patients to drink more bottled water, you have to wonder.

[mom cat]

26. I will never forget the Houston Headache. It would not go away until I

would go away for a while. The bitch of a headache would return by the time the plane was thirty minutes away.
I miss it not!

[Lisa]

25. Canada has nothing to brag about -- Ontario was once in second place

Not a proud day for my home province. And now here's BC deciding to go ahead with new coal-fired plants. In Ontario, the license plates once read "Keep It Beautiful", even if "It's Worse In Texas" were more truthful? (At least Texas produced Lady Bird Johnson's beautification programs -- and her concept of coupling the environment with social justice, which was way ahead of its time.)

[daleo]

30. Ditto for Alberta

Producing oil from the tar sands is tremendously polluting, in terms of greenhouse gases. Of course most of that is exported to the U.S., so in that sense the U.S. should share the blame.

[Lisa]

33. and also in terms of "virtual water"

It's almost like sending them our water, barrel for barrel. Apparently the petroleum sector (to say nothing of the Syncrude process) uses a lot of Alberta's water, and the ranchers and farmers are getting very agitated.

[daleo]

35. Yes, and coal bed methane will add to that

It is currently a big issue in the Red Deer area.

[Maestro]

29. Disgusting!

But the naysayers and the ones who benefit from the pollution will put their hands over their ears and close their eyes. What is happening to my Texas. Damn it to hell! :mad: Now 17 new coal plants...that is just stupid! Invest in wind technology for christ's sakes!

[Evoman]

32. So what, Texas has a high population....

Canada has nothing to brag about....WE waste water, our recyling programs are a joke, and we have plenty of industrial waste, car pollution, and garbage output. I'm Canadian, and I try to do my best to be environmentally concious (I don't own a car, I live in a small place, and I try to conserve water)...but most of the people around me are no better than anybody else. The number of SUVS in my town is growing, and almost nobody uses the transit. They will give you the "its cold, we need trucks, etc" excuse, but its all bullshit.

Don't give texans a break, but lets not act like Canada's the cats ass environmentally either.

[Zorra]

34. And Crawford is the leading polluter. That much bullshit produces

enormous amounts of toxic hot air.

[judaspriestess]

37. how ironic

because Texas is such a clean state when it comes to litter. "don't mess with Texas" anti-litter campaign. How sad. My poor home state.

[slackmaster]

38. Moo

Texas farms and ranches are home to about 15 million head of cattle, more than any other state.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/fnotes/fn0302/rounding.html