Texas Oil and Gas Regulator David Porter accused environmentalist who oppose fracking to extract oil and natural gas as participating with "Vladimir Putin in a plot to hurt the United States Economy." Texas Rail Road Commissioner Porter warned Secretary of State John Kerry of the "Underhanded Anti-Hydraulic Fracturing Campaign Designed to Drive Dollars from US to Russia" in a letter September 8th.
Commissioner Porter (R), a CPA from Giddings, Texas, was elected to serve a 6 year-term on the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency charged with oversight and regulation of Oil and Gas production in Texas. Porter's term expires in 2016
Porter accused Oscar-nominated film director/producer Josh Fox of utilizing lobbyists of Putin in distributing "Gasland", his highly acclaimed environmental documentary. Mr. Fox released this statement through his publicist:
Mr. Porter's assertions are outright fabrications and are utterly ridiculous. There is no connection between the Gasland films and Vladimir Putin whatsoever. Such statements by Mr. Porter are a brazen deceitful attempt to stir up controversy and focus attention away from the corrupt agency that he heads. The Texas Railroad Commission has been derelict in its duty to protect citizens from harmful fracking on dozens of occasions. Mr. Porter should be ashamed of himself for such outright lies. Furthermore, I am opposed to gas fracking anywhere on earth- here in the US, in Russia -everywhere. We have developed a grassroots campaign at www.solutionsgrassroots.com to foster the development of renewable energy so that we can move towards distributed generation of locally produced renewable energy. We must move away from energy as a fossil fuel commodity and towards renewable energy. If energy continues to be a commodity we will all continue to be dependent on robber barons and despots like Mr. Putin who will fight and kill for fuel. The wind and the sun should put all of these despicable characters out of business and put energy in the hands of the people. No more wars for fossil fuels abroad. No more misinformation about fossil fuels from those who would betray the public trust like Mr. Porter.
Josh Fox
Texas State Representative Lon Burnam said:
It is not at all surprising that one of the RRC commissioners is taking cheap shots at Josh Fox. Fox's films have done more than any other medium to raise important questions about the impacts of Fracking. These questions need to be asked. Elected officials that try to quite the public discussion about these concerns are not serving the public interest.
Railroad Commissioner Porter, in his letter to Secretary of State Kerry, touched on what is probably his inspiration for his Cold War rhetoric fear mongering when he wrote:
The Commissioner is in the process of developing a solution to assuage the Russian onslaught to Texas industry, including encouraging Congress to streamline the permitting process to build LNG plants in Texas and to allow oil exports.
Porter and his cohorts are at the beck and call of those who prefer selling American natural gas and oil at world market prices, which are higher than our domestic prices. Former Chair of the US House Energy Committee, Joe Barton, brought this up last Thursday at his Arlington, Texas Town Hall meeting. Barton says he favors repealing the ban on exporting US Crude. The ban has been in place over 40 years to ensure that oil produced in the United States is available for American national defense and industrial use. Currently the US Domestic price is lower than the world price per barrel of crude.
Barton was quizzed by constituents Thursday who are concerned that lifting the ban would cause domestic gasoline prices to rise. Barton said: "No, the price of gasoline is determined by the price of oil per gallon on the world market. Releasing our excess crude will drive down the World Price of oil and thus reduce what we pay for gasoline."
Barton's Democratic opponent in the November Primary, David E. Cozad says: "Barton is wrong. It is amazing that he could serve this long in Congress and not know that the price we pay per gallon of gasoline in this region is determined by West Texas Intermediate Crude (WTIC) not the World price per barrel. If the ban is lifted, it will drive up the price the refineries pay for WTIC and the price of gasoline we pay here in Texas and Oklahoma will go up."
Cozad continued: "As a former Marine officer and the son of a 32-year Army man, I'm not convinced that lifting the ban on exporting American crude oil is in the best interest of our National Security or the USA economy. Energy Agency Data shows that in 5 years it is expected that the American production of oil will significantly decrease. In only a few generations we have depleted fossil fuel reserves, especially oil and gas, which has taken nature hundreds of thousands years to create. If we sell our oil on the World Market now and cannot replace it in five years, we have a big problem here at home."
In Texas, public education is funded by the Permanent School fund which includes a severance taxes on Oil and Gas extraction. Oil and gas production is taxed at the market price and selling it at a higher price on the world market may bring in additional severance tax revenue. However, oil and gas produced through fracking gets a 50% tax break. Cozad is concerned that "the consumers do not get a break. They pay the full cost of the higher price of oil and gas products if our resources are sold on the World Market. Even though it may appear that getting higher prices for oil would help our children because there would be more severance taxes paid, overall lifting the ban on oil exports will have a negative economic impact on children. As our oil reserves are diminish and severance tax revenues in the Permanent School Fund drop, we need to revise how we fund public education in Texas. This is a State issue not a Federal Issue, but as a father and a grandfather, I am determined that state and national energy policy doesn't transfer profits into the pockets of Wall Street or foreign investors at the expense of our children. Lifting the ban on exporting American crude will cost American families and small businesses more."
First, there is no assurance that profits from selling American crude on the World Market will benefit the Texas or USA economy. It will depend upon who owns the production companies and what countries (bankers and financiers) have invested in the production companies. Current law does not require income from American oil investment to be banked or re-invested here. Many of the large producers are foreign controlled corporations. American jobs in the refinery industry will move offshore if the crude is exported before it is refined.
Here at home we do know that if the ban is lifted, families will face higher transportation costs. The price of gasoline will go up. The price of jet fuel and diesel will go up. The price of goods and services will go up to cover the increase in energy cost for manufacture and transportation. The number of jobs in the oil fields will remain the same since the same amount of production will merely be sold at different prices. The number of jobs in the refinery industry will decrease because less crude will be refined in the United States if they lift the ban. Overall, it appears that the winners will be some Wall Street energy sector investors and the nation as a whole will pay more for energy and everything that relies on energy for manufacture, transportation and /or distribution.
Cozad says: "Instead of lifting the ban on exporting American crude, and subsidizing fossil fuel corporations who depend upon government hand-outs to sustain out-dated technologies, we should be moving full-steam into converting to renewable energy. Instead, too many incumbents, such as my opponent Joe Barton, and his allies on the Texas Railroad Commission, refuse to put the best interest of this nation and the people of this state ahead of short-term profit for a few corporate energy companies. It is time that elected officials in Austin and Washington prepare for the future crisis which is indicated by government data, and academic. Instead of taking short-term profits we have to look to the future and weigh what is good for our children and grandchildren."
It is interesting that as elected officials such as Congressman Joe Barton and Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter, who are viewed by many as “bought and paid-for puppets of the fossil fuel industry” are pushing for lifting the ban on exporting LNG and American Crude Oil, they seem to be attempting to fabricate Russian interference in American domestic affairs to negate other more legitimate concerns about lifting the ban going against American National Security interests. Right now Americans in the MidWest pay less at the pump for gasoline than those in nations who pay the World Price for Oil for the gasoline they consume.
Will Texans believe Barton?
Will they buy Porter's “Chicken-little squawk” which brands those who fight for clean air and oppose fracking for use and contamination of too much water or who call for enforcing industry best practices and OSHA rules on the Fossil Fuel industry as “Russian Conspirators working with Putin against the American economy!”