House Republicans tell Texas to continue fighting Biden's federal overreach
Republican members of Congress from the Texas delegation are encouraging the state of Texas to continue fighting federal overreach by the Biden administration related to the energy industry.
In a letter made available to TheBlaze by the office of Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the lawmakers applaud executive actions taken by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) directing state agencies to use "all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatens the continued strength, vitality, and independence of the energy industry."
"We support your efforts and encourage you and the entire Texas Legislature to continue to hold the line against the dangerous and irresponsible federal action. The Biden Administration is using unelected bureaucrats to consolidate power in a federal city 2,000 miles away from the dome of our State Capitol," the letter says.
Since President Joe Biden took office in January, he has signed a series of executive orders on climate change, directing the secretary of the interior to pause granting new permits for oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters. Biden also canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline project on his first day as president, a move that eliminated an estimated tens of thousands of jobs related to the completion of the pipeline.
The letter calls on the state of Texas to challenge Biden's administration by asserting its 10th Amendment rights to defend Texas' oil and natural gas industries.
"As the American leader in energy production and innovation, Texas needs to maintain primacy and hold the line against federal overreach," the letter adds. It concludes, "We therefore urge you to continue your history of affirming and defending the 10th Amendment and remind the federal bureaucrats and politicians in Washington encroaching on our State's affairs, '[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'"
The letter was signed by Reps. Chip Roy, August Pfluger, Jodey C. Arrington, Dan Crenshaw, Randy K. Weber, Louie Gohmert, Michael Cloud, Ronny Jackson, Michael McCaul, Lance Gooden, Brian Babin, Roger Williams, and Pat Fallon.
On Jan. 28, Abbott signed an executive order directing state agencies to combat federal overreach by identifying potential litigation, notice-and-comment opportunities, and "any other means of preventing federal overreach within the law."
"The men and women who work in the energy industry produce the affordable energy that powers our lives and they are vital to the Texas economy," Gov. Abbott said at the time. "Texas is a pro-energy state, and we will not sit idly by and allow the Biden administration or local governments to destroy jobs and raise energy costs for Texas families. My Executive Order will help ensure that the federal government cannot take away the livelihoods of Texans who work so hard to provide our state and our nation with the energy we need."
Chip Roy to Biden: You want to kill Texas' energy jobs? 'Come and take it'
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Friday delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor slamming Democrats and the Biden administration for waging war by executive fiat on the oil and natural gas industries.
Among the flurry of executive actions President Joe Biden has taken in the weeks since he took office, Biden signed several orders on climate change, directing the secretary of the interior to pause granting new permits for oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters. Biden also canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline project on his first day as president, a move that eliminated an estimated tens of thousands of jobs related to the completion of the pipeline.
In his remarks, Roy accused Democrats of attacking the natural resources that are "the very great strength that the United States of America has to set us apart from the rest of the world to be independent."
Noting that CO2 levels in the U.S. have decreased in recent years and as of 2018 were at levels not seen since the mid-1990s, Roy argued that new technology like fracking and natural gas, which Democrats oppose, is responsible for lowering emissions, which Democrats claim to support.
"We have vastly exceeded what my leftist friends on the other side of the aisle want to follow, the social welfare state of Europeans down the road of fancy gatherings in Davos," Roy said. "They fly on their expensive jets to go preach to the world about global warming. Spare me your preaching as you're riding around in these jets, spewing out CO2, when we, through innovation in the great state of Texas and in our country, are creating clean-burning natural gas and are creating jobs powering the world."
Roy slammed the Biden administration, accusing the president's policies of "want[ing] to come in and destroy jobs, destroy our leadership in the world, turn us over to Russia and Iran, and oh by the way, empower China to roll right over us while they spew out whatever they want to spew out because darn if they're going to actually do anything like agree to whatever is in the Paris agreement."
"It is an absolute joke, it's a laughingstock what the Democratic Party is doing saying they're standing up for the little guy in this country, when you're going to drive up the price of energy, increase CO2, empower China, empower Iran, empower Russia, and harm jobs," Roy roared.
"You're going to kill hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country even as we're coming out of the negative effect of the pandemic."
He ended his remarks with a declaration to his Democratic colleagues: "You roll in here thinking that we're going to just fundamentally alter our entire economy through executive order?
"We're gonna say no. We're gonna say come and take it."
Watch:
WATCH: Rep. Roy's floor speech on the Biden administration's attacks on American oil and gas:"You roll in here th… https://t.co/eeqkgMpgDg— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@Rep. Chip Roy Press Office)1612545028.0
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