When Biden put the squeeze on Texas’ oil and gas industry, Democrats squealed, too

Bipartisanship has broken out in our area but it’s probably not what President Joe Biden had in mind when he called for national unity in his inaugural address.

As could have been predicted when the president issued executive orders putting the squeeze on the oil and gas industry, Texas Democrats were quick to raise objections.

Biden’s first desire for unity would surely be having all members of his party solidly behind him and his agenda.

The Democrats narrowly control both houses of Congress. If Biden is going to exercise power, he’s going to have to somehow discourage defectors from opposing his plans. Seeing any of his party’s members aligning with Republicans represents significant roadblocks, and that is just what has happened in the past several days.

Texas is the country’s largest provider of energy derived from fossil fuels. Without Texas, the U.S. would not have achieved the long held national goal of releasing our country from dependence on foreign sources of oil. That achievement is directly tied to our national security and peace in the world.

When Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and issued a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters, Texas leaders in both parties responded with resounding objections.

In a letter bearing the signatures of four Texas Democrats, including Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, the group declared: “Now is not the time to jeopardize American jobs, or the critical tax and royalty revenues that federal leases generate for local, state, and federal government that need funds now.”

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston quickly seized the moment.

“Thank you to these Texas Democrats,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is now bipartisan support for energy jobs, against the radical pseudo-environmentalism of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Gov. Greg Abbott responded with his own executive order directing every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatens the energy sector in Texas.

At an Odessa news conference, he declared that Texas would pursue an aggressive legal strategy against the Biden administration — much as Abbott, as attorney general, did against former President Barack Obama.

Abbott said he wanted to make it clear “that Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack from Washington D. C.”

Battle lines have been drawn much as they were in the first two years of the Obama administration, when Democrats, with far greater margins in Congress than now, failed to craft any law to significantly curtailing the use of fossil fuels.

Interestingly, Abbott and these Texas Democrats are closer to expressing the priorities of the American people than what Biden has declared as the No. 1 issue facing the country.

The respected Pew Research Center has just published its annual survey findings of the top priorities for the president and Congress to address this year.

There are 19 of them, and “dealing with climate change” came in at number 15 on the list. That’s pretty consistent with the survey’s findings for more than a decade.

The economy, jobs, terrorism, the coronavirus and improving the political system are at the top of that list, named as priorities for the government by between 60% and 80% of respondents.

It all prompts the question: Is the president catering to the far left of his party and out of step with what We the People want him working on in today’s deeply divided country?

Richard Greene is a former Arlington mayor, served as an appointee of President George W. Bush as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and lectures at UT Arlington.