Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan joined State Rep. Brooks Landgraf in Odessa Thursday to charge that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is dangerously exceeding its authority by threatening to declare the Permian Basin a “non-attainment area” and shut down its oil and natural gas production.
In a 2:30 p.m. outdoor news conference south of town with the gas-powered Quail Run Power electrical generation plant in the background, Phelan said all of the state’s political power is being applied to stop the EPA from wrecking the area economy and throwing tens of thousands of people out of work.
“This is important not just to the Permian Basin and the State of Texas, it’s important to the entire country for our national security,” Phelan said before 20 members of the Oil & Gas Workers Association.
Citing greatly boosted energy tax revenues that will enable the Texas Legislature to fund roads, schools and infrastructure here and across the state in next year’s legislative session in Austin, the Beaumont Republican said the area’s oil and gas production “is cleaner than other global producers.
“Russia is flaring 239 percent more methane than Permian Basin,” Phelan said. “President Biden traveled all the way to Saudi Arabia to ask them to increase their production. What he didn’t do was come to the State of Texas and ask us to increase our production.
“We take our stewardship of the environment very seriously and we are working hand in hand with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is an excellent agency. I trust Texans to manage our natural resources.”
Asked if the Legislature will allocate more money for roads, schools and water infrastructure in the Basin, Phelan said it must attend to infrastructure because none of the 1,037 people who are moving into the state each day are bringing any infrastructure like high-speed Internet with them.
He said improving regional transportation will be high on his agenda as will the public schools. “Thirty-eight percent of our budget is for public education and we will continue to maintain our commitment there,” the speaker said.
In opening remarks, Landgraf said he and Phelan, Gov. Greg Abbott, Congressman August Pfluger and other state officials will fight the EPA to the last ditch to stop an oil and gas shutdown.
“We all know that earlier this summer the EPA handed down that they were contemplating reclassifying the Permian Basin a non-attainment area, which would be devastating,” Landgraf said.
“We are here on a very nice, clear beautiful day breathing clean Texas air and we are proud that the state has worked hard to make sure we balance having clean air that we are proud for our children to breathe while also being the oil and gas epicenter of the entire globe.”
Landgraf said the EPA is basing its assessment of the Basin’s air quality entirely on testing in four monitors 100 miles away in Lea and Eddy counties in New Mexico and he said Texas “is pushing back against the Biden administration’s overreach.
“If they are going to mess with Texas, they’ve got a fight on their hands,” the attorney said. “We will not stand idly by while this attack takes place on Texas soil.”
