Twenty-two House members of the Texas delegation signed a letter last week urging the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to support infrastructure funding efforts for the Permian Basin in West Texas, through the BUILD grant program.
“The Permian Basin energy sector employs 444,000 people, fuels 10 percent of our state’s economy and produces 30 percent of our nation’s oil and gas,” U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), who led the efforts and wrote the letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, said. “With production in the Permian projected to double in the next five years, it is imperative that West Texans have access to safe, reliable highways to accommodate increasing traffic. We welcomed last year’s grant funding, but there’s still more work to do. These funds will allow TxDOT to connect the needs of local residents with state and national planning efforts, so that hardworking West Texans can continue to power our economy safely.”
The roads in question were buoyed last year by $25 million from the same source. Those funds were in turn matched by the state of Texas, which prioritized efforts in Winkler, Reagan, and Glasscock counties.
“We are deeply appreciative to Congressman Will Hurd for his hard work on behalf of the State of Texas,” J. Bruce Bugg, Jr., Chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, said. “Congressman Hurd personally led the effort to develop a bipartisan letter of support for Texas’ BUILD grant applications to bring federal dollars to Texas’ Energy Sector.”