IT’S ALL FOR THE GOOD OF TEXAS, RIGHT?

I’m wondering how my Texas elected officials feel about sentiments in the oil patch these days? From the WaPo 2/11/25: “The mood in West Texas, said D. Kirk Edwards, an oil and gas executive and former chair of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, is eerily like it was when the pandemic first hit, when oil prices plunged and companies stopped drilling. “I think we are going to see within 30 to 60 days a lot of the rigs running today idled,” he said. “Most people are in shock at how this can happen with a Republican administration.” Edwards says he is surprised by how aggressively Trump is pursuing tariffs that are creating pain for the industry, including boosting steel and aluminum tariffs to 25 percent. “Everybody was curious about the idea of using them as a negotiating tool,” he said. “I don’t think anybody in our industry thought steel products going into oil and gas wells would be such a big part of it.” Mark Waters says sales at his Odessa, Texas, tools business, which he describes as a “Home Depot for the oilfields,” are down about 10 percent. He does not regret voting for Trump, saying he is willing to take a personal hit to support the president’s agenda. But he said it is ironic that over the decades he has made a lot more money when the party he despises is in power. “The oil business has thrived under Democratic leadership despite them being true haters of all things fossil,” Waters said. “For whatever reason, I made millions of dollars under Clinton. Then I made even more under Obama and Biden. I have never had a solid explanation.” In Texas, the national leader for wind energy, the state legislature has advanced four bills that would introduce new challenges for renewables, particularly wind, said Olivier Beaufils, lead analyst for the central U.S. at market analytics firm Aurora Energy Research. Texas historically has been a free market allowing energy companies to build whatever makes financial sense, he said, but that’s starting to change. “There is a national context that is also giving some steam to people that just don’t like wind,” Beaufils said of the Texas bills.” Just thought you’d like some prime examples of voting against your own best interests. Cognitive dissonance indeed. Plus a giant dose of political hypocrisy. That’s the wind we really don’t like.