The U.S. has begun to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants quietly, with little fanfare and starting in Texas . The Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant in Llano County is being modernized with the installation of a combined cycle natural gas-fired turbine for improved efficiency at generating electricity. The refurbished “peaker” plant so-called because it is fired up when electricity demand peaks in nearby Austin and elsewhere in Texas’s grid will cut smog-forming emissions. Sensors to monitor greenhouse gas pollution also will be added to the plant.

That qualifies the Texas plant for a greenhouse gas permit , according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which began this year requiring any project that has an impact on greenhouse gas emissions to obtain such permission. In most places, states will be in charge of that permitting process as they are for other kinds of air pollution, but in Texas whose governor has threatened to secede as well as embarked on a run for president of these United States the state has refused to do that oversight. So, the EPA is in charge of evaluating permit requests in Texas, as is also the case in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon and Wyoming for a variety of reasons.