(The Center Square) – West Texas oil and natural gas small business owners heavily criticized President Joe Biden and his stated plan to eliminate the fossil fuel industry on Wednesday. They spoke at an event in the Odessa-Midland, Texas, area where GOP presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled his energy plan. His plan puts “Midland over Moscow” and vows to bring gasoline to $2 a gallon by 2025.
DeSantis’ event was held in an area where the Permian Deep Rock Company is drilling two wells. Its general manager, Kyle Hammond, said, “We understand how important this industry is to every American who buys food and puts gas in their tank. We are trying to get the prices down.”
It is “so important” for politicians to understand how policies they enact affect ordinary Americans, he said. “Raising the prices of American energy affects every single thing that we buy.”
It used to be “The sky’s the limit here,” Hammond said. But the “increasing regulations imposed by the Biden administration are wreaking havoc for us here in west Texas,” Mark Matta, co-owner of Odessa-based Square One Supply and Services, said.
“The increasing gas prices we all face at the pumps are a direct result of the failed policies of the current administration,” he said. “The soaring cost of gas and diesel have become a burden on households and businesses both big and small. As an owner of a small oil and gas supply house I feel that crunch of the high gas prices daily. One of my biggest expenses is fuel.
“The sad part about this problem is the current administration has no clue about this area,” Matta continued. “They have no clue about importance of fossil fuels. President Biden has never once visited west Texas to witness for himself what goes on here.”
Unlike President Biden, Gov. DeSantis “has come to visit the powerhouse of America to learn what we have to say and receive first-hand knowledge about the importance of oil and gas in Midland-Odessa,” Matta said. “Right here in the Permian Basin, we … produce 40% of the U.S. oil production and 15% of its natural gas production.”
“Let us do what we do best” he pleaded. “Allow West Texans to provide for our fellow citizens and not rely on foreign oil or the unreliable wind and solar substitutes.”
He thanked DeSantis for presenting “smart, effective, common-sense solutions to reverse what President Biden has done.”
Jennifer Woodall, an Odessan native, who has worked in the oil and gas industry her entire adult life, said life has been hard “ever since the Biden administration began an all out war on the industry we hold so dear.”
Costs across the board have doubled and tripled, she said, because of “Bidenomics,” which is why “families cannot make ends meet. Biden created a beautiful cocktail for us to go broke.”
She said “we are suffering the needless the consequences of Bidenomics. … We must have leadership in Washington that will reverse this curse.”
Hammond said if more politicians came to west Texas to learn what they were doing like DeSantis did, “we could get Americans out of this predicament.”
DeSantis’ “Freedom to Fuel” plan prioritizes 1) restoring American energy dominance, 2) “saving the American automobile,” 3) elevating “evidence over ideology,” 4) “reforming environmental permitting and ending ‘Green Lawfare,'” 5) “jump-starting critical mineral and federal land development,” and 6) building the “most efficient, affordable, and reliable energy grid in the world.”
On his first day in office, if elected president, DeSantis said he would restore American energy dominance by unleashing oil and natural gas exploration and development, pipelines, and infrastructure “to crush inflation and support working families.” He also plans to replace “climate change ideology with energy dominance in all national security and foreign policy guidance” and expand American energy exports “to strengthen global stability and end energy poverty.”
