Mr. White goes to Austin

Mayor Bill White will be in Austin this afternoon to testify before the State Senate Natural Resources Committee considering a bill that would strip cities of their ability to create ordinances that protect air quality. The bill, SB 1317 was authored by State Sen. Mike Jackson, a Republican from LaPorte (surprised?), and its captions lets us know that it is "relating to prohibiting a municipality from enacting regulations on air pollution that apply outside its corporate limits." We can imagine how Mayor White feels about that.

It's no secret that Houston's pollution is bad, but Mayor White has been trying to work on that. First he faced opposition in City Council, then opposition from local mayors. The state of Texas produces more carbon emissions than any other state, but some members of the state legislature believe that city ordinances aren't the way to fix this problem, apparently.

Video and audio of today's proceedings in the committee will be online here within a couple days.