Texas challenges findings of EPA climate change report

Sometimes the best way to change things is to dive right into it. The state of Texas, however, doesn’t seem to feel the same way.
Last December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the findings of its investigation on the harmful effects of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases not only drive climate change, which can cause freak weather and endanger the few virgin habitats left in the earth, but, according to the EPA, they can also cause heat waves that endanger individuals prone to strokes. Ground-level ozone pollution can also be linked to respiratory illness. With this report in mind, the EPA is hoping to pass some key environmental legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. “Business leaders, security experts, government officials, concerned citizens and the United States Supreme Court have called for enduring, pragmatic solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change.”
This report could provide enormous evidence for future clean energy reform, thus improving the quality of life for people in the U.S. It could also be the impetus for our own involvement in helping to preserve the one earth that we have for future generations.   
Certain states, however, have different plans for the future, as in nothing new. Texas became the first state this month to challenge the findings and predictions of the EPA. Officials distrust the research primarilly because it was done in cooperation with the International Panel on Climate Change, which has been plagued with revelations of errors since its release of their 2007 climate change report.
Aside from charges of questionable research, Texas officials also claim that drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will cause drastic and devastating changes in the local economy. Texans, who primarilly work in agriculture, rely heavily on oil-run machines to maintain their livelihood.
“The EPA’s misguided plan paints a big target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers and the hundreds of thousands of Texans they employ,’’ Governor Rick Perry said. “This action is being taken to protect the Texas economy and the jobs that go with it, as well as to defend Texas’ freedom to continue our successful environmental strategies free from federal overreach.’’
Texas, a leader in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and the main oppositional force to the EPA, should not try to tear down government efforts to resolve issues of climate change. Instead, Texas should be supporting such efforts; everyone should.
This isn’t about grabbing power or making money. It is about fixing a problem that isn’t going to affect us so much as it will the generations of people who will come after us. Climate change will not wait to kill off more species of animals or to threaten the world with freak weather while Texas stubbornly fights the results of the EPA’s report.   
Despite short-term effects on the economy, clean-energy legislation backed by this EPA report will have much more appealing long term benefits, including an end to our dependency on oil, reductions in the effects of global climate change, a cleaner and healthier environment for all and an increased awareness and greater demand for clean, energy efficient technology.
Yes, things might get worse before they get better, economically speaking, but isn’t all the trouble worth it if you save a few polar bears and penguins?