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April 10, 2017

Texas Enviro Pushing For Petrochemicals?

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Environment Texas director Luke Metzger recently penned several op-eds in support of replacing piping in in Texas public schools with either copper or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a petrochemical product produced by the oil and gas industry. Metzger, a registered lobbyist has also brought this cause to the Texas House Public Education Committee earlier this month.

Advocating for PVC piping marks a shift from Environment Texas’s previous goal of wanting to bring an end to the oil and gas industry.

Metzger and the Environmentalist Left often forget how important the oil and gas industry is in creating petrochemicals used in everyday products such as PVC. Katherine Stokes of the West Texas Energy Consortium pointed to oft-forgotten ways that oil and natural gas benefit Texans in everyday life:

“But beyond the barrels and the pipelines, oil and natural gas touches our lives in so many other ways. There are, of course, the products we use every day from toothbrushes to shoes and plastics to Play-Doh — that are made from petroleum products. In fact, the oil and natural gas industry produces 96 percent of products and materials that we use every day including medicines, computers, life-saving health care devices and more.”

This all is ironic given Environment Texas is bringing lawsuits against petrochemical companies that produce the piping it advocates for. Environment Texas should instead show support for these companies that could help make the drinking water of Texan children cleaner.