Harvey's Damage in Texas Oil Country Creates Quandary for Congress

"With the Republican home of the U.S. oil industry now in distress, will Congress and the president rethink their budget-slashing strategy?"

"Even as the floodwaters continue to rise in East Texas, it's clear that Hurricane Harvey will force a new reckoning over major energy and climate policy questions.

The immediate priorities—rescue operations, disaster assistance, flood insurance, and the like—will be followed by broader questions involving the vulnerability of infrastructure, the energy industry and communities to extreme weather, and the need to balance mitigation of the pollution that causes climate change with adaptation to global warming's inescapable impacts.

In this region, some of these issues have been pushed to the side as the Gulf Coast served as handmaiden to the North American oil and gas boom. Now, the oil and gas industry's prime processing and export center is partially under water.

Also running through the debate is the question whether this storm, beyond even the experiences of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, will lead to broader acceptance of the scientific consensus surrounding climate change, a crisis that offers no convenient escape route."

Marianne Lavelle, John H. Cushman Jr., and Georgina Gustin report for InsideClimate News August 29, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Harvey’s Toll on Energy Industry Shows a Texas Vulnerability" (New York Times)