Joe Biden's Destroying the Oil & Gas Industry, and Some Texas Congressmen Aren't Really Fighting It

Texans hope Representatives Fletcher & Garcia carry a pro-Texas & Energy message to their colleague and the White House

AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Insider Report) — Inflation, energy prices and grocery bills are top of mind for Texas families. Instead of offering real solutions to support them, many politicians have decided to engage in partisan jabs.

President Biden recently pointed the finger at Texas oil refiners, suggesting that they somehow control global fuel supply and demand and are responsible for high gas prices.

When prices rise, blame is assigned to everyone and everything save for the President's own policies.

But if prices fall, he's quick to claim the credit.

Texas representatives in the nation’s capital cannot let these assertions go unchecked.

Energy is not, and should not be, a partisan matter. The refining industry in Texas creates 1,000s of family-wage jobs locally while supporting our economy with billions in economic growth. That’s money for schools, public safety and investments in the next generation of energy technology.

Over the course of the pandemic, refinery workers were among the first declared “essential” by the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security and Defense. The country and world may have ground to a halt, but our economy still needed fuel to function. Refineries kept it coming, while the companies themselves racked up sizeable losses.

Now that the tide has turned and demand has come roaring back, the global fuel market is one of many that’s out of balance. Crude oil supplies are tight, there are fewer refineries around the world manufacturing fuel and prices reflect that.

To help solve that problem, Texas refineries are running at very high rates to supply fuel to the market. With Texas facilities leading the way, American refineries are by far the top producers of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel anywhere in the world. We need Texas facilities to keep this up so we shouldn’t be overlooking policies or statements that aim to get in their way by making it harder or more expensive to manufacture fuel in the United States of America.
 

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The partisan line on energy is that there will soon be no room for liquid fuels at the table — never mind the litany of analyses that make clear how a growing global population and middle class will require petroleum-derived fuels and energy for decades and decades to come.

President Biden has often been in this camp. He campaigned on ending U.S. oil and gas development, he’s working to phase out gas and diesel cars and his administration is considering several regulations that could make it harder to build energy infrastructure, efficiently produce fuels and secure U.S. gasoline supplies.

This single-minded approach to energy is not strategic and not wise. No one better to tell him this than Texas Congressional Representatives Lizzie Fletcher and Sylvia Garcia.
 

• They know Texas energy and refinery workers.
• They know liquid fuels.
• And they know that a cleaner energy future isn’t at odds with either.

Efforts to get energy and fuel costs under control and to build toward a stronger energy future need to be bipartisan and established on the premise that a wide-ranging energy portfolio — complete with liquid fuels, wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear — is good for our security and economy.

In the near term, ideas like banning U.S. energy exports, taxing Texas fuel refiners or fast-tracking California-style electric vehicle mandates when the U.S. has neither the supply chain nor electric grid capacity need to be put to bed.

Texans hope that Representatives Fletcher and Garcia will carry that message to their colleagues in Washington, D.C. – and even to Joe Biden's White House.