“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.”
In the letter, Governor Abbott spotlights how the hurried discretionary redesignation of the Permian Basin for ozone is arbitrary and how the EPA is choosing to stall analysis that would lead to an evidence-based finding contrary to the Biden Administration’s plans. In June, the Governor sent an initial letter to President Biden detailing how EPA plans to impose a discretionary redesignation of the Permian Basin could result in draconian regulations that would interfere with the nation’s most prolific oil field. Rather than respond directly, President Biden had his EPA send a letter reaffirming their plans to attack Texas oil and gas production and jeopardize our nation's gasoline supply with an arbitrary discretionary redesignation.
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. Following President Biden’s swearing-in last January, Governor Abbott issued an executive order to protect Texas’ energy industry from federal overreach.
