This was the text of the governor’s statement regarding EPA’s decision to reject Texas’s State Implementation Program for the Clean Air Act. “The EPA’s irresponsible and heavy-handed action not only undermines Texas’ successful clean air programs, but threatens thousands of Texas jobs, families, businesses and communities throughout our state. It will also likely curtail energy supplies and increase gasoline prices nationwide. “It’s shocking for the Obama Administration to target a 16-year-old air quality program that has achieved a 22 percent reduction in ozone and 53 percent reduction in NOx from regulated sources since 2000. Texas’ air quality program has outperformed federal programs in virtually every category. “The EPA’s action will undermine environmental gains as well at employers like Lockheed-Martin, U.T. San Antonio Health Science Center, the LCRA Fayette plant, and myriad energy producers throughout Texas, including two facilities operated by the federal government – Fort Bliss and the Department of Energy’s Pantex plant. Blinded by its activist agenda, the EPA is even threatening a renewable-energy power plant and a manufacturer of energy efficient air conditioners. “Texas will continue to fight this federal takeover of a successful state program, enacted under Gov. Ann Richards and operated in full under President Clinton, which has cleaned Texas’ air at the same time it contributed to the nation’s strongest economy. “I again call on the president and Congress to immediately rein in this rogue agency, and stop the EPA from continuing to threaten Texas families, their jobs and cost of living.” * * * * Second verse, same as the first: 1. This is designed for in-state political consumption. 2. It cannot be helpful, when you are in a major fight with enormous economic ramifications, to refer to EPA as a “rogue agency.” 3. There is no doubt that Texas’s air is cleaner than it used to be, but that doesn’t mean that it is in compliance with the Clean Air Act. At no time does Perry indicate that he is willing to work with EPA toward solving the problem. I don’t think he cares about solving the problem. He cares about scoring political points. What is the governor’s end game?