Friday, January 26, 2007

Good News for Ethanol, I Guess ...

Texas Politics, one of a slate of blogs at the Houston Chronicle, notes that Representative Rick Hardcastle, a Republican from Vernon, is moving over from the Texas House committee on Ag & Livestock (which he chaired) to be the new chair of the Energy Resources committee, replacing Representative Buddy West, a Republican from Odessa.

It's been suggested by the
Austin American Statesman that the move for West is one of a number of "demotions for former Craddick loyalists who opposed his re-election."

Maybe, maybe not ..... all I know is that Craddick has yanked a West Texan who represents the heart of energy production (oil and gas), new energy (wind), energy research (proposed research reactor, and CO2 school), and energy waste disposal (Andrews County) in the Lone Star State, and replaced him with an ag guy from the Red River Valley.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

didn't West vote twice against Craddick on legislation which would have favored Pitts and potentially kicked Craddick out of the speaker's seat.
With West's history why should Craddick trust him?
And does anyone really think oil and gas legislation that can negatively impact the basin will get by craddick?
West dug his own grave here.

Jeff said...

Anonymous, thanks for dropping in.

We may be discussing apples and oranges, here ...

My concern is West's commitment to his constituents' welfare ... that a man representing a part of Texas closely tied to the energy industry, has lost a leadership position in an important house committee ...

Your concern appears to be West's commitment to agenda of one man, Speaker Craddick ... and that his political 'reliability' is a principal factor in keeping a leadership position in that committee ...