Abstract
This article is a longer adaptation of the speech given by Professor Weaver as the Kerlin Distinguished Lecturer in Environmental Law on September 20, 2001 at Pace University School of Law. The author looks at how President Bush, raised in the west Texas oil town of Midland, was quick to respond to the emerging energy crisis with an energy plan formulated by a task force headed by Vice President Cheney, another oilman with western roots. The President's new plan has been both touted and widely criticized as being an oilman's dream pushing fossil fuel production, dismissing conservation, and reducing environmental protection. The article takes a historical look at the Texas oil and gas industry and its conservation/environmental record to provide insights into the need for federal government involvement in energy and environmental policy today. Discussed within the article are the conflicting goals of increasing oil and gas production and protecting the environment in Texas, and more particularly, how the federal government has intervened in this resolution.
Recommended Citation
Jacqueline Lang Weaver, The Federal Government as a Useful Enemy: Perspectives on the Bush Energy/Environmental Agenda from the Texas Oilfields: Second Annual Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture, 19 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 1 (2001)DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/0738-6206.1252
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol19/iss1/1