Courtesy of Laura Skelding/Austin American-Statesman

Gov.-elect Greg Abbott took aim Thursday at the growing list of local regulatory ordinances in Texas that do such things as restrict the use of plastic shopping bags, ban fracking for oil and gas, and limit what homeowners can do with trees on their property.

Texas, he contended, is being "California-ized."

"We are forming a patchwork quilt of bans and rules and regulations that are eroding the Texas model," Abbott said. "Some cities are telling citizens you don't own some of the things on your property that you have purchased and owned for a long time, things like trees."

He called such rules "a form of collectivism."

The group that represents city governments in Austin, the Texas Municipal League, suggested that Abbott, a staunch opponent of federal intervention on state policy, was being hypocritical. Continue reading...

Virginia officials scored a key victory Thursday in their battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over what EPA critics describe as a land takeover.

U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Alexandria ruled late Thursday that the EPA exceeded its authority by attempting to regulate stormwater runoff into a Fairfax County creek as a pollutant. O'Grady sided with the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which challenged EPA's stormwater restrictions "Stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it," O'Grady said.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says the ruling could ultimately save Virginia taxpayers more than $300 million. Continue reading...