In just three weeks into President Joe Biden’s term our congressman, Vicente González, has already found cause to vocally disagree with him and González is wrong. President Biden has issued an executive order to pause on leasing federal lands for oil and gas extraction while the federal government reviews the process and contracts. González and three other Texas Democrats, Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher of Houston, and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth wrote a letter demanding the order be rescinded.
The federal government charges a 12.5% royalty on oil and
gas produced on federal lands which is about half of what the state of Texas
and other states charge on state owned lands or what private landowners
typically get on their leases. That 12.5% leaves little to nothing for the federal
treasury once the cost of cleanup and damage to roads is covered. Earning a
competitive royalty rate alone is a good reason for the federal government to
review oil and gas leasing on its lands as they’re currently leaving a lot of
money on the table and enriching the already wealthy shareholders while leaving
the rest of us to clean up the mess. It’s also important to know that most of
the federal land currently leased isn’t in production so pausing further
leasing won’t stop new drilling even a little bit.
Less than 2% of Texas is owned by the federal government and
of that about three quarters is held by the Department of Defense or the
National Park Services. There is no federal land not held by the Dept. of
Defense or National Park Service that I could find in Congressional District 15
which Cong. González represents so it’s not like local jobs are at stake. In
point of fact his constituents who own mineral rights in the Eagle Ford Shale
in a few counties in the district should actually benefit from the pause in
federal leases by their lands and the oil and gas produced thereon becoming more
valuable; especially if the federal government raises the royalty percentage to
the market rate.
The real reason that Pres. Biden has but a hold on leasing
federal land for oil and gas development is that he understands that global climate
change is an existential threat to our way of life and possibly our species.
The world has less than 30 years to get carbon emissions under control before
the climate is irrevocably wrecked. If we don’t collectively get our act
together and stop spewing CO2 and methane into the atmosphere faster than trees
and plants can absorb the CO2 our children and grandchildren will find that much
of the world will be uninhabitable by the end of the century. There will be
drought, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s.
The drought will cause crop failure and famine world-wide leading to mass
migration and war over resources.
All four Texas Democrats who signed onto the demand to
rescind the pause in leasing have two things in common: districts with
substantial oil and gas businesses and the number one industry making campaign donations
to them was oil and gas. It seems pretty clear who Cong. González is listening
to and it isn’t his constituents since Pres. Biden’s climate change initiatives
have been well received by the general public.
It is a national security imperative that we avoid a climate
change caused disaster and our congressman is too worried about appeasing a
handful of rich campaign donors. Call his Washington D.C. office at 202-225-2531
and let him know what you think.
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