By State Rep. Brooks Landgraf
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to be weaponized against the Permian Basin in favor of Biden’s war on Texas energy. But here in the Lone Star State, we know how to fight back.
In June, citing data obtained from air quality monitors in New Mexico (and not a single one in Texas), the EPA announced its intention to consider redesignating the Texas portion of the Permian Basin as a “non-attainment” area – an area that does not meet the standards of the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards. In reality, it’s an attempt by unelected bureaucrats to indirectly shutdown West Texas oil fields, which is something they can’t do directly.
In response, last week I sent a letter to President Biden which was also signed by a bipartisan group of several of my colleagues in the Texas House of Representatives who represent other areas of the Permian Basin. In that letter, we explained the cold hard truth: A non-attainment designation of the Permian Basin is at odds with U.S. economic and national security interests, and, ironically, environmental interests as well.
The EPA’s contemplated action is completely discretionary. In other words, the president could prevent it from ultimately going into effect, and thereby prevent suffocating the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin with crippling and unnecessary regulatory burdens.
The reality is that if production slows or declines in the Permian Basin, where environmental concerns are top of mind, other energy-producing nations that don’t share our values regarding freedom and the environment will fill that void. This will undoubtedly cause global emissions to rise, American geopolitical power to wane, and prices at the pump to soar.
Earlier this month, the EPA entered our backyard to conduct flyovers of the Permian Basin by using helicopters and infrared cameras to survey oil and gas operations. Those flyovers ended this week and were nothing more than the agency’s latest bully tactics to use black helicopters to parade its Green New Deal fantasies. The intrusion was uncalled for, but we will not stand idly by.
As chairman of the Texas House Committee on Environmental Regulation, I’ve recently announced a committee hearing (scheduled for October 19th in Odessa) to investigate the proposed EPA regulations and the impact they may have on Texas. I have since sent a letter to Administrator Michael Regan of the EPA, inviting him to speak at our upcoming committee hearing. I hope that he has the decency to show up and explain his proposal.
President Biden—through rogue radicals at the EPA—have vilified the hardworking men and women of the Permian Basin for long enough. EPA leadership should no longer hideout in D.C. or black helicopters to push a radical agenda.
It’s time to look Texans in the eye.
God bless Texas!
