Biden actions against oil and gas industry producing 'chilling effect' against energy workers: George P. Bush

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'This is a bipartisan issue': George P. Bush rips Biden on canceling Keystone

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush discusses a bipartisan push in the state against the Biden administration's policies targeting oil and gas on 'America's Newsroom.'

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said Wednesday that President Joe Biden's immediate moves against the oil and gas industry produced a "chilling effect" against energy workers around the country.

"With this flurry of executive order activity, it sends a chilling effect, not only to the industry, but hard-working individuals throughout our country that rely on these jobs to put food on the table, and it's a meaningful issue for them and is sometimes lost by coastal elites," Bush told "America's Newsroom."

Biden's early actions including canceling the Keystone Pipeline at the cost of 11,000 jobs and suspending new oil and gas permits on federal lands. Republicans have blasted Biden for what they view as pandering to the left on environmental causes and reducing U.S. energy independence.

Bush said he wanted to give Biden the "benefit of the doubt" but said the new president had shut out the oil and gas industry from having meaningful discussions.

"I'm afraid that we're going to have to be in the courts to find redress," he said.

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Bush said defending oil and gas jobs was not a Republican pet issue, noting four Democrats in the Texas U.S. House delegation oppose the environmental lobby. Union leaders like AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a Biden supporter, also criticized the White House over the quick Keystone cancellation, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., a key swing vote in the Senate, asked Biden to reverse his decision.

Texas could lose 120,000 jobs through 2022 with the administration's suspension of new oil and gas leases, and Bush said the state would pursue legal avenues as it had in the past against fracking bans and what he called specious listings of animals on the endangered species list.

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"For us, an industry that employs over 400,000 Texans and on average pays over $120,000, this is a lifeblood of our economy," Bush said. "So we're going to leverage every legal remedy available to the state in finding standing to seek remedy in our federal court system, just as we did during the Obama adminstration, as Texas has successfully fought back federal overreach over the generations."

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Bush is the nephew of former President George W. Bush, who served as Texas governor for six years before winning the White House. His father is former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.