For the first time, the University of Texas Permian Basin hosted a congressional hearing.
The congressional hearing took place Monday afternoon at the University of Texas Permian Basin Engineering Building and started with a press conference followed by the hearing focused on “federal energy production supports local communities.”
The four congressmen August Pfluger (R-San Angelo), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Pete Stauber (R-MN) and Bruce Westerman (R-AR) each spoke.
“It’s really my pleasure to introduce what you are about to witness in this hearing, which is a decision on how this industry truly helps our local communities and why we need to be doing it here,” Pfluger said during the press conference. “We do it more efficiently. We do it cleaner. We do it better than any other country.”
Westerman, the chair for Natural Resources Committee, said worldwide energy consumption is still dominated by coal, oil and natural gas.
“We are going to use more oil and gas,” Westerman said. “We are going to use more coal. If you look at the world consumption of energy by fuel type: coal, oil and gas are still the dominant sources of energy. We need to embrace all kinds of energy, but since we know we are going to use more fossil fuels why don’t we get it from here.”
The three witnesses for the congressional hearing were New Mexico Republican Senator David Gallegos, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association
President and CEO Doug Ackerman and Permian Basin Strategic Partnership President and CEO Tracee Bentley.
As detailed in the written statement provided by Gallegos, he stated in fiscal year 2022 that oil and has contributed $10.8 billion dollars to New Mexico state and local coffees more than double the previous high fiscal year 2021. Oil and gas contributions make up an average of one-third of New Mexico’s state budget.
Ackerman’s written statement details “New Mexico’s oil and gas industry generated over $63.3 billion in oil and gas revenue in FY22, an increase of 132 percent from FY21.”
Bentley’s written statement showed that in five years since PSP was founded, it has directly invested nearly $125 million in projects across the Permian Basin and contributed to collaborative investments totaling $975 million.
A second congressional hearing for energy and commerce on “American Energy Expansion: Improving Local Economies and Communities’ Way of Life.” will begin at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Bush Convention Center. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who is the chair for the Energy and Commerce Committee, Jeff Duncan (R-SC), who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee, are scheduled to attend.
