Published: February 21, 2023 |

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Members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee continued their travel to Midland to see first-hand how the region’s oil and gas industry affects local economics and what impact expanding energy production — or lack of expansion — would have on local economies.

“Our primary energy objective is to ensure reliable, secure and affordable delivery of energy to Americans, to their homes, to their businesses, the grocery store and everywhere in between,” committee chairwoman Cathy Rodgers, R-Washington, said in her opening statement.

“We must build upon our nation’s diverse and abundant natural resources to create more secure supplies, more dependable power. We must work to develop a predictable regulatory landscape, one that unleashes America’s unmatched genius for innovation and technological leadership,” Rodgers added.

Energy communities matter, she continued, and the committee moved from its hearing room in Washington, D.C., to the nation’s energy capital, Midland, to see where the nation’s energy future begins, “in places like the Permian Basin.”

She was joined by other committee members in the Barbara and George H.W. Bush Convention Center as the Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security heard from Midland Mayor Lori Blong, Adrian Carrasco, chairman of the Midland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and president of Premier Energy Services, Michael Zavada, professor of biology and geosciences at the University of Texas Permian Basin, and Steve Pruett, chairman and chief executive officer of Elevation Resources, and chairman of the board of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Blong told committee members the City of Midland has seen firsthand how the “shale revolution” positively impacted jobs, created greater sustainability in a historically cyclical business and is helping achieve energy security the country. She also cited the tremendous benefits derived from the record taxes the industry has paid locally and statewide, supporting education, health care, first responders and infrastructure like roads, bridges and broadband.

She decried what she called the headwinds of pipeline and infrastructure permitting, the ESG — Environment, Social and Governance — movement driven by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the current administration’s vow to “put an end to fossil fuels.”

“The messages, virtue signaling and rhetoric that have come from the federal level lately tell us oil and gas is evil or not on the side of average American or on the side of care for our environment. This could not be further from the truth,” Midland Mayor Lori Blong said, citing efforts to develop beneficial reuse of produced water and emissions reduction.

In his work as president at Premier Energy Services, Adrian Carrasco told committee members he sees firsthand how the industry strives to operate responsibly. He said he has also seen how the industry has allowed entrepreneurs to fulfill their dreams of opening restaurants or bakeries, restaurants expand into second locations and catering services to oil sites.

Asked by Rep. August Pfluger, the San Angelo Republican who represents Midland-Odessa and other parts of the Permian how the rhetoric around the industry has affected his 64 employees, Carrasco replied, “It wreaks havoc. They see how the industry benefits them and the community, the innovations being made. It creates panic – they wonder what’s going to happen to them.”

Like Blong, Steve Pruett, chairman of the board of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, decried the headwinds facing the industry, citing regulatory uncertainty that has constrained capital formation and investment. He stressed the need for permitting reform that speed up permits for infrastructure like pipelines and transmission lines.

He warned that if the administration and the industry remain on their current path, the U.S., developing countries and US allies will be confronted with $150 oil prices.

“It’s not what we want, but unless those barriers are removed, we won’t be able to grow oil and gas production to meet demand,” Pruett said.

For his part, Michael Zavada, professor of biology and geosciences at the University of Texas Permian Basin, urged support for local communities who are more susceptible to the boom-and-bust cycle of the industry to improve their communities and attract other energy or tangential industries to diversify their economies.

And while the Permian Basin will remain the supplier of a major portion of U.S. energy for at least the next 50 years, “it is no secret West Texas is also an ideal environment for the production of alternative energy — solar, wind and hydrogen fuels. I believe if rational and cooperative investment in the development of all forms of alternative energy will not only diversify our energy portfolio but continue the long tradition of West Texas as the major source of America’s energy needs,” said Zavada.

Source: Midland Report-Telegram

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