American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019 - 122

ConventionCoverage: Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners
calling them out on it."
Meanwhile, he noted, despite environmentalists' assertions about pollution

associated with oil and gas, the last four
decades had seen a decline in every type
of U.S. emission, he said. Meanwhile,

he contrasted, "For every coal plant we
shut down in the United States, China
builds 20."
❒

Texas Seeks To Maintain Prosperity
AUSTIN, TX.-The Texas Independent
Producers and Royalty Owners Association
heard their state's leaders pledge to back
for legislation this year to repair roads in
producing regions and fund technology
upgrades at the Texas Railroad Commission while holding the line on taxes for
an industry that officials insist is responsible for much of the state's economic
surge.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, Speaker
of the Texas House of Representatives
Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, and key
legislative committee chairmen each
voiced their support of the energy industry
while speaking at TIPRO's 73rd Annual
Convention and Legislative Call-Up, held
Feb. 27-28 at the Sheraton Hotel at the
Capitol in Austin.
The following day, TIPRO members
spent the morning meeting with lawmakers
and their aides at the Capitol.
Texas Success
During his remarks to TIPRO, Governor Abbott promised to do his part to
maintain a fair and balanced regulatory
and tax system for the state's oil and gas
producers.
"We need to make sure that the tax
burden on our citizens is minimized as
much as possible to make sure we maintain
this favorable regulatory environment, to
make sure we prevent-among other
things-misguided local regulations that
create a patchwork quilt of complicated

regulations like what happened a couple
of years ago with the fracturing ban
passed by the city of Denton, Tx.," recalled
the governor. "Know that the state of
Texas will remain vigilant to prevent a
patchwork quilt of regulations."
According to the Abbott, the upstream
industry plays a major role in Texas'
leading position in exports among all 50
states and in helping the state lead the
nation in job creation during both the
past year and the past decade. He noted
that those developments had given the
Lone Star State the country's lowest unemployment rate.
"We have been able to achieve a remarkable increase in oil and gas production
while at the same time, ensuring that we
are being more environmentally sensitive,"
Abbott reflected.
Despite rising production, emissions
of nitrogen oxide, considered a greenhouse
gas and a substance in ozone, have plunged
45 percent, the equivalent of eliminating
85 million passenger vehicles, he detailed.
Turning his eyes to Washington, Abbott
assured TIPRO that the Green New Deal
that had surfaced in Congress (AOGR,
March 2019, pg. 30) was nothing to fear.
He described it as a socialist program
with a price tag that topped trillions of
dollars. "It shows the way socialism has
hijacked the forces of capitalism," the
governor insisted. "Let me tell you, capitalism works, socialism fails. Texas will

Senator Robert Nichols
(left), R-Jacksonville,
accepts TIPRO's Hat's
Off Award from TIPRO
Chairman Eugene Garcia. Garcia lauded the
chairman of the Senate
Transportation Committee and Vice Chair
of the Senate Business
and Commerce Committee for supporting
the oil and gas industry
and credited his efforts
to improve the transportation infrastructure
in the Permian and Eagle Ford areas.

122 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

never be a socialist state."
Abbott pledged to continue supporting
pipeline construction from the Permian
Basin and Eagle Ford regions to Gulf
Coast refineries and export terminals, and
recounted a letter he penned to President
Trump as well as conversations he'd had
with the president, Vice President Mike
Pence and U.S. Commerce Secretary
Wilbur Ross on the challenges associated
with tariffs on imported steel.
During the governor's trade mission
to India last spring, Abbott recalled an
Indian steel company pledged to build a
pipe manufacturing plant in Baytown,
Tx.
Meanwhile, Abbott also assured Texas
producers of his intent to address road
maintenance and construction needs in
areas including the Permian Basin and
Eagle Ford, and said he was working
with state lawmakers, the Texas Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Transportation, which recently
awarded the state $600 million for roads.
Furthermore, the governor urged
TIPRO members to help persuade their
congressional representatives to support
ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada
Agreement trade treaty between the United
States, Mexico and Canada. He deemed
USMCA a crucial pact for oil and gas
producers and the entire state of Texas,
which counts Mexico as its top trading
partner, and Canada as its second-place
one. Abbott insisted that support from all
of Texas' congressional delegation would
mean ratification, and noted that both
U.S. senators John Cornyn, R-Tx., and
Ted Cruz, R-Tx., already had pledged
their support.
The governor also expressed support
for property tax reform that would cap
proposed rate hikes at 2.5 percent before
an automatic election is triggered. During
the past decade, property taxes had increased twice as fast as the combination
of inflation and population growth, he
indicated. Local officials must be forced
to justify tax hikes by showing where
additional revenues will be spent, Abbott
added. He also suggested that property
tax reform should be coupled with school
finance reform to improve education.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019

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