(The Center Square) – At a Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association summer conference in San Antonio, Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian lauded the state’s oil and natural gas industry as the leader of the free world.
He told attendees: “You are literally the hope for the free world.”
Christian said President Joe Biden’s plan to eliminate fossil fuels and shut down the oil and natural gas industry would lead to widespread destruction and starvation.
“In the last 100 years, fossil fuels have saved human lives, provided more food to the starving, lifted people out of poverty, and enabled our modern, technological way of life in the 21st century,” he said.
The Texas Railroad Commission, Texas’ oldest regulatory agency founded in 1891, was initially created to oversee the railroad industry. Now it oversees the most important industry in the largest oil-producing state in the U.S.: the $7 trillion Texas energy industry.
The commission has both state and federal regulatory and enforcement responsibilities, regulating the industries of oil and natural gas, pipelines, coal and uranium surface mining operations.
Christian was elected the 50th railroad commissioner in 2016 and was reelected in 2022.
The RRC points out that 80% of the world’s energy is produced by fossil fuels and they’ve also contributed to reducing extreme poverty by 32% from 1980 to 2020. Climate-related deaths are down by 98% in the last century because of improved technologies made possible by the oil and natural gas industry, he said. Additionally, over 6,000 consumer items exist because of the industry, The Center Square has previously reported.
Christian also pointed to the industry’s contributions to Texas, paying a record $24.7 billion in taxes in fiscal 2022. Nearly all, 99%, of royalties paid went to the Permanent School Fund (PSF) and Permanent University Fund (PUF); production taxes contributed $1.5 billion to Texas’ Rainy Day Fund.
In 2022, the Texas oil and natural gas industry broke records in every category, leading the U.S. in oil and natural gas production and lowered emissions, ranking first in industry job growth, wages, payroll and Gross Regional Product (GRP) nationwide. States that ranked second weren’t even close by comparison, according to a recent TIPRO report.
Another report produced by Texans for Natural Gas found that methane emissions intensity in the Permian Basin fell by more than 76% as production increased by over 345% over the 10-year period analyzed.
The U.S. is also the world leader on environmental protection, Christian said. In the past 50 years, the six major pollutants regulated by the EPA have fallen by 78% as the U.S. grew by 285% and its population grew by 60%, according to data from the RRC.
“Texas’ role as a global energy leader extends well beyond just volumes,” Ed Longanecker, TIPRO president and TNG spokesperson, said. “Our state, and the Permian specifically, produces some of the world’s cleanest natural gas. That matters more than ever today, as global unrest is creating energy challenges everywhere. We have what it takes to power the homes, businesses and industries of Americans and our allies. Leaders at home and abroad should take note of the progress Texas producers have made in methane and flaring intensity as they develop policies impacting our industry.”
Texas is the top LNG exporter in the world, providing a lifeline to European countries, TIPRO points out.
“The only hope for the free world right now is Texas,” Christian said, in part because European countries implemented “green energy” policies that failed. They shut down their coal and natural gas facilities “because they had Mr. Putin’s pipeline bringing natural gas in the back door that nobody would talk about.”
When that got shut off after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the “green” energy policies couldn’t keep the heat or lights on and their citizens would have frozen or starved to death, Christian and TIPRO have argued. Now, European policies are prioritizing reinvesting in coal mines and coal production facilities and importing LNG, Christian said, primarily from Texas.
Those opposing freedom, Christian said, are pushing environmental, social, governance (ESG) policies. The “E,” he says, really means “anything except oil, natural gas and coal.”
The “S” really means “dividing Americans by race … and any subgroup you can, that’s called Marxism in the historical terms.” The “G” means “anything that the government takes over, that’s socialism.”
If Biden’s plan to eliminate fossil fuels were actually implemented, without oil and natural gas “you lose 97% of your consumer products, you don’t have enough food to feed half the population and you have 80% less power,” Christian said. “That’s what’s gonna happen if we continue to do exactly what our president says he’s gonna do is shut down oil gas.”
Texans aren’t going to let that happen, however, Longenecker told The Center Square. “We will stand for the free world.”
