AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today addressed the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) Energy and Climate Policy Summit, where he discussed the state’s current lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its overreaching and misguided regulations on emissions and water.

“The fight against EPA is not just about growing the economy, protecting private property, or even saving jobs,” Attorney General Paxton said. “It’s about standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law. It’s about taking power out of the hands of unelected bureaucrats and returning it to the people. It’s going to take us all, working together, to prevent ideologues from gutting the American dream to advance their own misguided agenda.”

“We also have to stand up to Washington in other areas, such as the Bureau of Land Management’s land grab along the Red River. I commend TPPF for being among the first to act in defense of private property rights in this dispute and I’m proud my office has joined that fight to defend the borders of our state,” said Attorney General Paxton.

Attorney General Paxton discussed ongoing energy issues in the State of Texas, including the current challenge to the EPA’s Carbon Rule, which will result in the premature retirement of existing power plants, damage the reliability of our electricity grid and drive up energy costs for businesses and consumers alike. Texas and West Virginia are leading a 24-state coalition that last month filed suit against the EPA over the new rule.

The attorney general also discussed the state’s challenge of the EPA’s new “Waters of the United States” rule (WOTUS), which was halted by a federal court last month.  Under the rule, the EPA would redefine any ditch or gully that might hold liquid as the nation’s “navigable waters,” expanding federal jurisdiction over private land and enabling the EPA to exert control over virtually any property that has the potential to get wet and puddle.

Texas has demonstrated that it can clean its air without destroying the energy sector. Even as the state’s economy and population has grown steadily for decades, nitrogen oxide and ozone levels are down over the past 15 years and Texans are breathing cleaner air.