Greg Abbott is asking the Biden administration to halt a plan that he said would jeopardize a large portion of the nation's oil production and increase gas prices.
In a letter sent to Biden on Monday, Abbott, a Republican, cited the Environmental Protection Agency'sEnvironmental Protection Agency's plan to impose a discretionary re-designation of the Permian Basin, which is located in Texas and New Mexico, and accounts for 40% of all oil produced in the U.S.
The letter said that while you express concern about out-of-control gas prices, your Environmental Protection Agency EPA is threatening to increase them even further. The EPA could interfere with the production of oil in Texas and lead to skyrocketing prices at the pump, reducing production, increasing the cost of that production, or do both. Your administration's action is completely discretionary. You have the power to stop it. The EPA recently announced plans to tighten air quality standards at the basin, a move that could result in draconian regulations, Abbott said.
The Biden administration wrote that the EPA is considering a discretionary redesign of parts of these counties in New Mexico and Texas for the 2015 ozone NAAQS under Clean Air Act section 107 d 3 based on current monitoring data and other air quality factors. If the area is designated to nonattainment, the state will be required to submit a State Implementation Plan to bring the area into compliance with the 2015 ozone NAAQS. The basin is responsible for 5.2 million barrels of oil per day, which can be processed into about 95,000, 000 gallons of gasoline per day, according to Abbott.
If the EPA goes ahead with the untimely and unnecessary measures that accompany the redesignation, it will put at risk 25 percent of American oil supply, the letter said. That could lead to a significant increase in the cost of gasoline. He wants a response by July 29. If the EPA moves forward, Texas will take action to protect oil production and gasoline from it, the governor said.