Congressman Pfluger warns of EPA ozone nonattainment designation for Permian Basin

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - Congressman August Pfluger is concerned following his recent conversation with the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 Administrator, Dr. Earthea Nance, as he believes the EPA fully intends to issue a discretionary ozone nonattainment re-designation for the Permian Basin.

“They only have two monitoring sites and both of those are in New Mexico they don’t actually have certified ground monitoring stations in the state of Texas so I immediately pushed back and said I don’t believe that gives you a holistic view,” said Pfluger.

The re-designation is all about the ozone which falls under the Clean Air Act and looks at air quality.

If the EPA does this Pfluger says it would dramatically hamper production as cost would increase drastically.

“It will cause an increase in the price of energy for every American not just for Texans not just for us here but for every single American and it hurts those who are most vulnerable the most,” said Pfluger.

The decision would also increase the monitoring small companies have to do in their own production to comply with what Pfluger describes as overreaching regulations.

Small companies represent 80% of production in the country for oil and gas and they are already facing higher input costs, operating costs, supply chain shortages and more.

“We don’t wanna see a drop in the number of employees, especially those that are skilled workers that are in the production business and so that’s what we’re really worried about,” said Pfluger.

Pfluger says they are fighting this.

“The Biden Administration has consistently assaulted this industry and its lead to inflation at record levels. I mean we’re talking 40 and 50 year highs. It’s because of their assault on the oil and gas industry this is one more example of the way that they are assaulting the industry and it’s hurting all of us in our pocketbooks,” said Pfluger.

Yesterday Pfluger spoke with Representative Brooks Landgraf, Governor Greg Abbott and others, who are now working hard to make sure they face this threat with a unified plan.