Exclusive — Watch: Texans Eager to Pass GOP Energy Bill to Counter Biden’s ‘Demonization’ of the Industry

Texas Republicans hailed the GOP’s signature legislation, the Lower Energy Costs Act, on the same day that two Texas Democrats revealed they would also support the bill, signaling the nation’s top oil-producing state stands to gain from its passage.

Breitbart News spoke to several Republicans from the Lone Star State who applauded H.R. 1, which would, among the many provisions built into 175-pages of bill text, require the Department of the Interior to “immediately” resume any stalled onshore oil and gas lease sales, shorten lengthy permitting processes, and eliminate certain restrictions on imports and exports in the energy market.

Describing Texas as “the energy capital of the U.S.,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) emphasized her state’s reliance on the industry, as well as its unique vulnerability to “extremes in temperature” given it runs on its own independent power grid.

“In Texas in particular you’ve got some extremes in temperature. A couple of years ago we had the freeze in February, and we lost power on our grid in some areas, and this last summer, we had rocket amounts of demand because of heat, you know, heat waves that happen in our state, and having dependable energy is really important, and when we start looking at what we’re trying to accomplish in Congress, is making sure that we have that necessary energy available to our citizens, but that we’re also able to use our resources to help out allied countries.”

Van Duyne added, “What we’ve seen from this administration from day one is just a demonization of the entire energy industry.”

The White House announced this week that Biden, who has warned of the “grave … climate emergency” facing America, would veto the bill if it were to make it to his desk in its current form.

The administration claimed in a veto announcement that oil and gas production was thriving, that the bill would provide a “thinly veiled license to pollute,” and that it “would take us backward.”

Nonetheless, two House Democrats, both from South Texas, said on Wednesday they are planning to vote with Republicans on the bill, as detailed in the Texas Tribune.

Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), a new member representing a heavily Hispanic South Texas district next to the Democrats, explained why she believed H.R. 1 became bipartisan thanks to her state.

Matt Perdie / Breitbart News

“We have the Eagle Ford shale, which not only is about jobs, but it’s also about helping small business owners and helping the economy in our local area, but also helping all Americans who are fighting inflation and gas prices, and when we have higher gas prices that means higher cost of food for Hispanics,” De La Cruz said. “This is really important because Hispanics tend to have larger families, and that means more mouths to feed.”

Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) zeroed in on the same temperature concerns as Van Duyne, noting in a brief interview with Breitbart News his state’s deep freeze in 2021 and dire heat wave in 2022.

He said, “It’s impacted us twice in the last several years, one cold, one hot. Renewable energy is not reliable, so ‘renewable is not reliable’ ought to be our mantra.”

Self, a former county judge, also praised the permitting reforms in the bill, saying, “When we talk about cutting the permitting time, cutting the scope of the environmental assessment, the environmental impact statements, that will make huge infrastructure projects cheaper and will also make them faster. Now that benefits every family, Republican or Democrat or independent.”

The bill, labeled H.R. 1 to signify that it is Republicans’ top priority, is set to see a full House vote Thursday. The bill is expected to pass, but its future in the Senate remains uncertain at present.