EPA Ruling Means More Jobs for Texans

In this week’s version of Sen. Cornyn’s weekly email to constituents he makes some spurious claims about Pres. Obama’s new EPA regulations and energy costs; especially how they will affect Texans. If anything the new regulations will hasten the switch from coal to natural gas for electricity generation which will improve the Texas job outlook.

For most of this year natural gas prices have been falling and drilling activity in the Eagle Ford shale and the Barnett shale areas have dropped precipitously. The new EPA regulations on power plant emissions will encourage electric power companies to switch to natural gas thereby increasing demand for it and hence promoting drilling in Texas again. Drilling brings jobs and good paying ones at that.

An additional benefit is that wind and solar generation will also be encouraged and they produce more high paying jobs than coal does and Texas is a prime location for both. So why is Sen. Cornyn knocking the EPA regulations? Could it be that the investors who own those old dirty coal plants that will be shuttered stand to lose out on further profits? Could it be his campaign contributors from the coal industry aren’t happy?

Cornyn votes to protect roaches by keeping the lights off

Senator Cornyn proudly proclaims that he voted to allow businesses with significant foreign shareholders to continue to spend unlimited amounts of money to affect elections in the United States, but is that the act of a patriot? He’s also proud that he voted to allow businesses with government contracts to continue to spend unlimited funds to influence elections. Cornyn claims to be protecting small donors but the only ones required to file new reports are donating over $10,000. Now I don’t know about you but to me $10,000 is serious money to just drop on a campaign ad. I doubt that any of us are ever likely to make such a donation, so who is he really protecting?

The Supreme Court has specifically said, “transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.” We’ve all heard the old axiom that “sunlight makes the best disinfectant”. Polls show that 80% of all Americans and 76% of Republicans want disclosure of who is paying for campaign ads yet John Cornyn voted to let them remain hidden. Tell Senator Cornyn he was wrong to vote against the DISCLOSE Act, call him at 202-224-2934.