Executive Suit
February 20th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
A state judge could decide by the end of the day whether to issue an injunction temporarily halting the administrative hearings - set to begin tomorrow - on six of TXU’s proposed coal-fired plants. This could be the timeout coal opponents desperately need to better prepare for their fight.
Today, attorneys for four anti-coal grassroots groups argued to Travis County district judge Stephen Yelenosky that Governor Perry’s October 2005 executive order fast-tracking the air permits for coal-fired power plants was illegal. The executive order cut the time the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) can hear contested cases from 12-18 months to six months - a big favor to TXU and a major headache for groups fighting the permits.
The Governor’s executive order is “absolutely unprecedented and it’s extremely dangerous,” attorney Jim Blackburn previously told the Observer, “because the [SOAH] was set up by the Legislature to be free from exactly this type of influence peddling.”
“What the governor has done is exercise authority that exists nowhere to change a rule,” said attorney David Kahne to Judge Yelenosky today. Kahne, a constitutional law expert, argued that Perry has no constitutional or statutory authority to override existing rules. By imposing severe time limits on SOAH proceedings, Perry is acting in a legislative capacity and stripping citizens of their due process rights, Kahne said.
On the defense side, lawyers for Attorney General Greg Abbott (Perry’s defense), argued that the plaintiffs had to show that the expedited hearing process had done them harm before a court could hear their complaints. They also disputed the assertion that the governor had overstepped his executive authority. The executive order is “not usurping the Legislature’s role in somehow creating SOAH or anything,” an AG attorney said in court.
Although Yelenosky’s ruling will have obvious immediate effects on the coal plants, it could also call into question Perry’s other executive orders, most significantly his recent order to require schoolgirls to get an HPV vaccination.
Stay tuned. We’ll let you know later today what transpires.
