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Energy and Environment Reporting for Texas

What Does the Texas Attorney General Do For Fun? “Sue the Obama Administration”

Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has openly bragged about suing the federal government, despite a losing track record.

Speaking at a conference this morning in Houston, Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott talked a bit about what he likes to do for fun.

“What I really do for fun is I go into the office,” Abbott said at the Texas Hispanic Leadership Forum, “[and] I sue the Obama adminstration.”

Abbott has openly bragged of his proclivity for suing the feds, with some 24 lawsuits at a cost over $1.25 million, several of them aimed at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the Texas Tribune.

One of those lawsuits took a slight turn in Abbott’s favor this week, when an appeals court found that the EPA hadn’t properly rejected a state permitting program for a small number of industrial facilities. But of the 140 facilities under the old permitting program, all but six have moved, or are moving to, EPA-approved standard permits, making the lawsuit something of a moot point.

And in another high-profile showdown with the EPA on greenhouse gas regulation, Abbott hasn’t fared well thus far, losing an appeal.

Suing the federal government isn’t all Abbott does for fun, though. After a long day of lawsuits, he heads home to “raise a teenage daughter, which is a far taller task than suing the Obama administration.”

(Thanks to Joe Holley of the Houston Chronicle for confirming the quote. You can read his article on the forum, where Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio gave the main remarks, here.)

Previously: What’s Texas Losing in its War on the EPA?

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