The Texas politicians you mention do not reflect what real Texans say, so be careful about who you are insulting here.  Governor Perry won his job seat with less than 40 percent of the vote for Governor.  We can't help it is he's a complete idiot about Global Warming.  We can't help it that the Democrats and independents split the ticket, such as runners like Kinky Friedman.  If one unified, single candidate ran against "Governor Good Hair" he or she would have won by a 60/40 landslide victory.

In spite of what you're saying, the best thing that ever happened to Texas was to kick out George Bush to Washington DC so he couldn't screw up Texas any worse than it already is.  

Meanwhile a huge court case is proceeding against TXU and its "clean coal" bent.  I don't see many people on this board making any suggestions about how to help fix that problem, other than the Syn-Gas argument is fundementally flawed and it could definitely lose on appeal as it rests.  We're talking millions of dollars in court costs and lawyers fees, much of it pro-bono, but so far no good ideas about how to stop the madness about clean coal in a court of law.  

Thank about that ...
Sam

Onward through the fog

I have to agree that comments like these, coming from the top government officials of a given state, are the stuff of nightmares.  Really, they are actually bordering on criminal, imho:

---"Absolutely," Gov. Rick Perry replied when asked recently by the Star-Telegram whether there is scientific doubt that human activity causes global warming. "I am not going to put the state of Texas in a competitive economic disadvantage on some science that may or may not be correct."

---State Rep. Phil King said: "I think it's just bad science. I think global warming is bad science."

---In a recent opinion piece, Perry said there remains great debate among scientists about the validity of man-made global warming.

--- Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Wednesday that there's an "absence of scientific consensus on the causes of climate change"

I'm in Texas also. It is truly disheartening to see these smoke and mirrors played on the masses. The analogies made with Big Tobacco are very similar, but these are also an injustice (as realistically, the impacts from tobacco use are far less than the wide-ranging impacts of global warming)

Gov. Perry was accurate in his statement:

---"Absolutely," Gov. Rick Perry replied when asked recently by the Star-Telegram whether there is scientific doubt that human activity causes global warming. "I am not going to put the state of Texas in a competitive economic disadvantage on some science that may or may not be correct."

There are scientists who doubt mankind is a significant contributor to climate change,  whether you agree with these scientists or not.

And Gov. Perry is not going to trash the economy of Texas regardless.  (Texas is supposed to take an economic hit while China pollutes without limit?)

Remember that politicians in the U.S. are interested in getting elected, and otherwise have little interest in any of the issues.

Until Texans discern a problem with climate, that is unlikely, no action is going to be taken by the gov't or business, except flooding the media with hot air.
 

Not only is the Texas government denying global warming, at a recent meeting of the State Farm property and casualty actuaries, a manager laughed at the idea of global warming.  That could turn out to be disasterous for the company, and this is especially concerning to me, State Farm is our livelihood!

It is good to know that scientists are writing letters like yours. You pared it down and kept away from personal and political issues. Hopefully it will be read.