I’m sure y’all know that we’re coming up on a landmark election. Yet for those really plugged into Texas politics, you might remember another fateful date. This November is the 30th anniversary of the last statewide Democrats ever elected in Texas. Centrist, though respected men as they were, Bob Bullock, Dan Morales, John Sharp and Garry Mauro were elected in 1994 and served under then Republican governor and future president George W. Bush. (Democrat Martha Whitehead was also elected Texas State treasurer in 1994, though she helped abolish the position through a constitutional amendment two years later.) Still, after decades of one-party rule, an injustice that typically describes countries like China, North Korea and Iran, the Lone Star State’s conservative, now MAGA, party is finally hitting rock bottom. Simply put, “Our house is on fire.”
The Grand Old Party to blame
On September 16, a NGL (natural gas) pipeline in La Porte, Texas, exploded and continued to burn for nearly three days. This after a car hit a seemingly unprotected valve in a populated area outside of Houston. The pipeline is owned by Dallas-headquartered Energy Transfer. Its CEO, Kelsey Warren, has made the news multiple times in the last decade. You might remember when he sued 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke for defamation. Beto tied GOP donor and billionaire Warren to the deadly power-grid failure in 2021. According to the Texas Tribune, “Warren’s Energy Transfer reportedly made $2.4 billion off [Winter Storm Uri] as demand for gas soared. Months later, Warren cut a $1 million check to [Governor] Abbott’s reelection campaign.”
The most recent pipeline fire combined with light state regulation on oil and gas, where more natural gas and hazardous pipelines are buried than any other state, creates the perfect storm where these types of accidents happen regularly. Though by accidents, we’re talking explosions, pollution to the air you breathe and the water you drink, exponential natural wealth lost, increasing cancer rates, and childhoods cut short by sickness. This all makes perfect sense when the rules are written by the industry, voted on by legislators who are elected with funds donated by said industry, and then rubber stamped by the Texas Railroad Commission, our state’s oil and gas agency.
Oil billionaires own our state government
After the La Porte pipeline fire, Progress Texas discussed at a staff meeting: What could have helped prevent this or at least empowered Texans in the aftermath? On X, formerly known as Twitter, state Rep. Gene Wu answered our question. Rep. Wu posted, “Democrats tried to push through a bill that would force companies to disclose exactly WHAT CHEMICALS are burning when there’s a disaster like this. Republicans killed it,” and he’s correct. I found at least two legislative sessions where Democrats proposed bills that would disclose or further place safety measures on operators of pipelines, chemical storage, and oil and gas. But, this isn’t a happy ending. In the decades since all-out Republican rule, hundreds of millions of dollars from oil and gas companies and their private owners have washed our state government officers’ campaign finances. And, you know what happened! We’ve seen dozens of explosions similar to La Porte, literal tons of flared or released gas from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, and a few actual chemical meltdowns, most notably the famous West fertilizer detonation. So, why are we waiting for the next Chernobyl to vote out the “Texas Soviet Union,” our GOP one-party rulers?
More stuff MAGA is bad at
In addition to a failed regulatory system surrounding energy, one-party Republican rule has consistently pushed health, education, and even roads and bridges towards the bottom of the lot. Twelve years ago, former Governor Rick Perry declined bipartisan-supported education funding for teachers and systemic college readiness reform, federal dollars that would have expanded STEM education and led us towards the middle of the pack in funding allocated per student. Today, as Governor Greg Abbott gets closer to further stripping state tax dollars from struggling school districts through his private school voucher scam, Texas is ranked 46 out of 50 states in student success. We just don’t fund real priorities, but we also leave Medicaid money on the table; money we send to Washington, D.C., that other states take home! At least in education, we’re beating Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and last in the nation, Mississippi.
Moreso, our esteemed leaders don’t only target the future of Texas. In the 14 years since the Affordable Care Act passed, state lawmakers have refused to expand Medicaid. This insurance currently covers close to 6 million Texans, “everyone from cancer patients to pregnant people to kids across the state.” Data shows an expansion would add about 1.4 million more Texans to the rolls, at little or no cost for tax-payers. In fact, a decade of research further shows that all Texans’ health outcomes would improve when it’s expanded, and your own marketplace premiums could drop too; it’s a win-win. Republican states like Utah and Arkansas even know this, enabling their own expansions, but Abbott can’t seem to get over the ACA’s popular name, “Obamacare.”
It’s about damn time for a change
Come January, Governor Abbott and his extremist caucus will be pushing bills that would spend upwards of $2 billion annually on private and religious school tuitions and an additional $2.9 billion to fund the border wall and Operation Lone Star. Are these your priorities? This while an ongoing lawsuit, covered by the “Texas Standard,” alleges “market manipulation led to power grid failure in [Winter Storm Uri] … companies like CenterPoint Energy, BP, Energy Transfer Partners and Morgan Stanley are [accused] in the case.” But again, there’s a catch! In 2021, your conservative-led state Legislature mandated a process and time limit to appeal huge rate bill increases that surged as much as 7,000% during the power outages. According to Saul Elbein, an energy reporter for The Hill, the Texas Legislature found that the fees were fair. The case is up in the air, but I hope your mind’s made up. Texas needs a shake-up and you’re the wake up call.