(ACC's own) Senator Jackson's bill to limit the ability of Houston Mayor Bill White to regulate Houston's air quality by regulating air polluters just outside the city's boundaries continues to move forward.
As mentioned below, this case touches on issue definition. Is this bill about the environment or about sovereignty? Or is it about anything that is has to be about in order to pass. No one wants to champion dirty air, but the environmental committees are tilted in favor of the bill while the committees that would hear a sovereignty issue are run by democrats. Jackson seem to be both saying that it is a sovereignty issue and steering it towards the environmental committees.
A run for the governorship seem to lurk behind the effort to regulate, or protect, the polluters. White is rummored to be ready to make his move and is likely to run against Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst--who is pushing Jackson's bill. Aside from the merit of either effort, is the conflict ultimately about prepositioning on issues likely to be on the agenda in 2010?
Also behind the scenes are suspisions that the mayor's techniques are heavy handed, not the only time he has been accused of this by the way.
