Gov. Abbott pushes back against EPA action against Permian Basin
SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott is concerned about action from the Environmental Protection Agency against the Permian Basin, and he is expressing those concerns to the Biden Administration.
In a letter, Abbott responds to a potential ”discretionary redesignation” of the Permian Basin, a move he says could jeopardize a quarter of the nation’s gasoline supply. Abbott accuses the EPA of using flawed logic and data in order to the help advance the Biden Administration’s stated goal of ending fossil fuels, which he says will have lasting impacts on Americans already tasked with navigating skyrocketing inflation and gas prices.
“We will begin by challenging the accelerated timelines that your agency uses to rush through its policies,” reads the letter. “Because your administration has very little [time] remaining, you refuse to deliberate or halt this ‘discretionary’ action despite the adverse impacts on Americans. If those impacts are irrelevant to your administration, be honest and tell us. Don’t send us your surrogate. Americans have the right to know if their president puts politics over people.”
Abbott attacks the EPA’s hurried discretionary redesignation of the Permian Basin for ozone for being arbitrary and he also accuses the agency of stalling analysis that would bring about evidence-based findings that would contradict Biden’s plans.
Letters have gone back and forth over the course of the summer, with Abbott reaching out to Biden in June. But the Texas Governor says he got a letter back from the EPA in response that only reaffirmed the agency’s plans to attack Texas oil and gas production. You can read Abbott’s most recent letter to the Biden Administration by clicking here.
After Biden took office, Governor Abbott issued an executive order to protect the Texas energy industry from federal overreach.
The Texas oil and gas industry directly employs more than 422,000 Texans and supports 1.37 million total direct and indirect Texas jobs.
Producers in the Permian Basin are responsible for 5.2 million barrels of oil per day, which can be processed into about 95 million gallons of gasoline a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
