Texas energy group calls Green New Deal “a bad deal for Texas”

The Green New Deal offered by Democrats last week continues drawing fiery responses from the energy industry.

The group Texans for Natural Gas issued a statement calling it the “latest attempt from radical environmentalists to halt oil and gas production with unsubstantiated claims and scare tactics.”

“The Green New Deal is a bad deal for Texas. It would eliminate billions of dollars for Texas education, while also putting millions of hardworking Texans out of a job. Supporters of this radical plan claim there would be a ‘just transition,’ but that’s easy to say when it’s not their job that will be eliminated. No government plan devised in Washington will ever be ‘just’ if it involves taking away paychecks from hardworking men and women in Texas.

“The United States is the largest oil and gas producer in the world, and we will soon be a net energy exporter. Venezuela already taught us what socialism can do to an energy-rich country. We should learn from that disaster, not try to replicate it.”

 

What radical environmentalists don’t understand is how much oil and gas production does for Texas. Here are some of the massive contributions made by oil and gas:

 

Key Facts

  • Tax revenue from Texas oil and gas production alone will contribute $6.7 billion to the FY 2018-19 budget.
  • Oil and gas production provides 336,000 jobs in Texas and supports millions more.
  • The economic impact of oil and gas in Texas – over $137 billion – is approximately 10% of our state GDP.
  • Since 2010, approximately $70 billion worth of manufacturing investments have been announced in Texas to capitalize on abundant supplies of shale gas.
  • In 2017, property tax revenue from oil and gas development provided $1.1 billion for Texas school districts.
  • Royalties and tax revenue from record-breaking production in 2018 propelled the University of Texas endowment to $31 billion, making it now the second largest endowment in the country.
  • Natural gas accounts for 52 percent of all power capacity in Texas.