Gov. Perry on the Environment and Natural Resources

If you want to know where the future is headed, look where the people are going. And if you want to know where the people are going, check with U-Haul. Here's an interesting indicator, first noted by the legendary economist Arthur Laffer: Renting a 26-foot U-Haul truck to go from Austin to San Francisco this July would cost you about $900. Renting the same truck to go from San Francisco to Austin? About $3,000. In the great balance of supply and demand, California has a large supply of people who are demanding to move to Texas. There's a reason for this.

"Did the greater prosperity in low-tax states happen by chance?" asks Laffer, who studied the issue for a detailed economic report, Rich States, Poor States. "What seems obvious to us appears as right-wing science fiction to many California legislators and pundits. They claim that serious reform of the tax code is unrealistic, that a large state has many duties to fulfill, and that it is irresponsible to call for a return to a 19th century view of the role of government. . . . Not only does Texas lack a highly progressive income tax — it doesn't have one at all! We hasten to add that the last time we checked, Texas still had literate kids, navigable roads and functioning hospitals, which one would think impossible given the hysterical rhetoric coming from defenders of California's punitive tax system. In fact, the Texas success story illustrates everything we have been recommending for California all these years. How do they do that?"

How, indeed?

Texas was among the last states to enter the recession. California is expected to be the last state to leave it. Texas has lots of jobs and not much in the way of taxes. California, the other way around. California has Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Hollywood Republican who presided over enormous expansions of spending and debt. Texas has Rick Perry, a classic conservative hard case who just vetoed a pre-kindergarten spending bill, adding to the record number of vetoes he's handed down as governor. And it's not just Perry — the story of Texas politics is full of Democrats who would have been too right-wing to be elected as Republicans in Connecticut or Pennsylvania. Things are a little different down south of the Red River.

Governor Perry sums up the Texas model in five words: "Don't spend all the money." Here's what a good long run of small-government, low-tax conservatism has achieved in Texas: Once a largely agricultural state, Texas today is home to 6 of the 25 largest cities in the country, more than any other state. Texas has a trillion-dollar economy that would make it the 15th-largest national economy in the world if it were, as some of its more spirited partisans sometimes idly suggest it should be, an independent country. By one estimate, 70 percent of the new jobs that were created in the United States in 2008 were created in Texas. Texas is home to America's highest-volume port, the largest medical center in the world, and the headquarters of more Fortune 500 companies than any other state, having surpassed New York in 2008. While the Rust Belt mourns the loss of manufacturing jobs, Texans are building Bell helicopters and Lockheed Martin airplanes, Dell computers and TI semiconductors. Always keeping an eye on California, Texans have started bottling wine and making movies. And there's still an automobile industry in America, but it's not headquartered in Detroit: A couple thousand Texans are employed building Toyotas, and none of them is a UAW member.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry said federal regulation of carbon-dioxide emissions would be "absolutely economically disastrous" for energy-rich Texas, one of the few parts of the country still adding jobs.

The Republican's views are increasingly at odds with those of the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama, whose energy and environment appointees favor using the power of the federal government to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, so called because they trap the sun's heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has taken an increasingly public stance opposing federal greenhouse-gas regulation.

"If you put that type of regulation in place in America, it will stifle innovation and strangle the American economy," Gov. Perry said during an interview in his office, where his cowboy hat sits on a bust of George Washington.

As he stakes out his role as a high-profile dissenter on carbon legislation, Gov. Perry is leading a state that is changing. His opposition to federal cap-and-trade legislation to limit emissions plays well with Texas' traditional business community and many large campaign contributors; Texas is far and away the top carbon-dioxide-emitting state and largest coal consumer.

But the state also has a growing renewable-energy industry. Texas has almost twice as much electrical generating capacity from wind turbines as second-place state, California, and far more than others.

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Some statehouse observers see in Gov. Perry's opposition to Washington regulations a shrewd political calculation. He is positioning himself as an outside-the-Beltway voice as he prepares for an anticipated, bruising political challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. She is widely expected to run for the governor's mansion in 2010. Her spokesman declined to comment.

Texas had more clean energy jobs than every other state except California and garnered more clean energy venture capital investment than most in 2007, according to a study by Pew Charitable Trusts.

The study, released Wednesday, shows that 55,646 people were employed in the clean energy industry in Texas. That's a large chunk of the 770,385 clean energy jobs nationwide. Researchers attributed Texas' success to state policies that create incentives and mandates for clean energy.

"The Texas clean energy economy is poised for incredible growth," said Pew researcher Kil Huh on a conference call Wednesday.

Pew researcher Phyllis Cuttino said, "Despite the state being an oil-producing state, it has engaged in policies that are going to grow these other sectors of the economy, which we would applaud."

....

Gov. Rick Perry has pointed to Texas' growth in wind energy capacity as an indication of success in the clean energy sector. Texas has more wind energy capacity than any other state, according to a 2009 American Wind Energy Association report, and is building power lines to support even more.

At the same time, he has warned Washington politicians that greenhouse gas regulations would kill jobs and economic growth here because of the large fossil fuel industry.

In 2008, the oil and natural gas industry contributed 16.5 percent of Texas' gross state product and employed 367,967 people, dwarfing the clean energy industry's numbers .

Still, according to the Pew study, Texas has attracted more jobs and investment than most states.