Congressman August Pfluger, State Sen. Kevin Sparks and Rep. Brooks Landgraf are rigorously fighting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s intention to designate the Permian Basin a non-attainment area and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s proposed declaration of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard an endangered species.
The legislators say the stakes couldn’t be higher because the federal regulators intend to shut down the Basin’s multibillion-dollar energy industry.
“I’m glad to see my legislation to repeal the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard proposal included in the House Appropriations Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Bill,” Pfluger said Monday from Washington. “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has extended the deadline for industry comments till Oct. 2.
“I will continue fighting against the radical wing of the federal government that is working to shut down oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin and around the country,” the San Angelo Republican said. “Energy security is national security and nothing is more important.”
Sparks said the EPA’s non-attainment plan “is unfortunate but not surprising.
“In anticipation of this I sponsored House Bill 4932, which mandates the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to investigate the impact of foreign pollution on EPA-designated non-attainment regions,” the Midland Republican said. “This law, which became effective immediately upon Gov. Abbott’s signature June 11, aims to refine the State Implementation Plan for submission to the federal government by factoring in the foreign emissions that the Permian Basin receives from Mexico and other countries, all of which are significant contributors to air quality in the region.”
In the meantime, Sparks said, he is hoping a Republican wins the White House next year and that President Biden and his radical environmentalist administration are ousted.
“Hopefully we’ll have an administration that will correctly balance, as the law requires, these designations against the effects they would have on jobs and the economy,” he said. “Regarding the potential endangered status of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard my office will submit a comment this week expressing my concerns about its repercussions on regional oil and gas workers, many of whom are my constituents.”
Sparks said the EPA and FWS “have strayed far from their original environmental improvement missions, despite air quality and species conservation both having improved substantially over the last few decades.
“If left unchecked,” he said, “the Biden Administration’s actions will needlessly risk substantial harm to Texas industries and cause a massive inflationary effect on the global price of oil for all Americans.”
Landgraf said Biden “is weaponizing bloated federal bureaucracies for the benefit of billionaires on the East and West coasts.
“Their ongoing attempts to indirectly curb the production of oil and gas in Texas would not benefit but rather would harm the environment and the underprivileged whom Biden claims to care so much about,” the Odessa Republican said.
“Crude oil in producing countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, where they care little for the livelihoods of their citizens and even less for the environment, burns exponentially dirtier than the light sweet crude we produce in the Permian Basin,” he said. “If Biden gets his way and production is reduced in Texas, these nations will produce more to meet demand, leading to increased global emissions and a consolidation of geopolitical power where human rights violations are the norm.”
Landgraf said the feds’ babble about the Lesser Prairie Chicken, the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, changes to the ozone standards and non-attainment designations “is all about one thing, money.
“Big-time liberal donors stand to make billions if the Biden Administration is able to continue manipulating the market for the benefit of wind and solar,” he said. “As a life-long resident of the Permian Basin and chairman of the Environmental Regulation Committee in the Texas House, I care deeply about the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.
“The good Lord has blessed Texas with an abundance of wind and sunshine to go along with the ocean of oil and natural gas beneath our feet and it is up to us to be good stewards of those resources. It’s also up to us to stand up and fight back when the government tries to manipulate and bully the free market.
“That is why I will keep fighting with everything I have to prevent potential indirect restrictions on Texas oil and gas production from going into effect,” Landgraf said. “On Sept. 1 two bills I authored to protect Texas energy will go into effect, preventing state resources from being used to enforce any new federal restrictions on oil or natural gas production and ensuring that fuel sources such as gasoline and diesel can never be outlawed in this state.”
The representative is encouraged by the support of Abbott, Pfluger and House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont.
“Thankfully we are not alone,” Landgraf said. “Gov. Abbott, Speaker Phelan and Congressman Pfluger are in the foxhole with us fighting for Texas energy jobs and the promise of American energy independence.
“Hopefully millions of American voters will join us in the fight by casting votes in 2024 for candidates who will fight for what’s right and not bow down to Hollywood liberals. We must always be vigilant in defending Texas energy regardless of who is in power.
“But the surest way to prevent the enactment of any of these pending anti-fossil fuel actions is to get someone else in the White House.”
