American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2014 - 170

ConventionCoverage: Texas Alliance of Energy Producers
Pressler warned his successor that the
association's work was far from done,
with seismicity fears, methane regulations,
worker safety and tax reform just some
of the issues confronting the oil and gas
industry.
During the board meeting that closed
the convention, directors elected Pressler
to the new position of chairman emeritus.
As he assumed the chairmanship,
Rogers praised Pressler's efforts, saying

he had done a fantastic job in growing
membership and increasing the industry's
influence in the state and nation. Rogers
added he believed the Alliance could
boost its membership to 5,000, and called
on each member to help recruit the people
he worked with. "The Alliance now covers
the state from Wichita Falls to Abilene,
from San Angelo to San Antonio, to Corpus Christi," he said. "We have most of
the state, so we have a lot of opportunity

and I think we will be able to fulfill that
opportunity in the next several years."
Rogers also called on members to be
ready to help with association activities.
"This is your Alliance; this is your
association," he asserted. "We need your
help. We will have many opportunities to
call on you in the near future, to serve on
committees, to go to Austin to testify, to
go to Washington to testify, and to help
this alliance represent you."
❒

Ex-Politician Assails Political Climate
WICHITA FALLS, TX.-Politicians
today have a tendency to make decisions
even when they don't understand the
issue at stake, asserted ex-Congressman
J.C. Watts Jr.
A former University of Oklahoma
quarterback, Watts later served on the
Oklahoma Corporation Commission before he was elected to represent Oklahoma's 4th District in the U.S. House of
Representatives for four terms. The luncheon keynote speaker at the Texas Alliance
of Energy Producers' annual convention
in Wichita Falls on April 23, he said, "I
have seen elected officials taking halfbaked positions and not be open to a
better understanding of possible solutions
when one emerges. That is not principle.
That is arrogance."
Pointing to proposed changes in the
federal tax code as one example of that,
Watts, who now works with the Domestic
Energy Producers Alliance, argued many
in Washington favored eliminating the
intangible drilling costs and depletion allowance provisions because they viewed
them as subsidies.
"No one gives the oil and gas industry

a check when a producer drills a dry
hole," he said. "Understand that if you
take away 30 or 35 percent of the capital
that drives this industry, you are going
after the captain of the ship. But also
recognize you cannot sink the captain's
quarters without sinking the crew's quarters."
Since he was first elected to the House
in the Republican revolution of 1994,
Watts said he has seen Congress get progressively worse each election cycle.
When he went to Washington 20 years
ago, he recalled Republicans had to get
used to being in the majority for the first
time in 40 years and Democrats had to
adjust to their new minority status.
He posed that it had been rough sledding for both parties in the two decades
since that point. Watts used his experience
in 2009 as an example, saying when considering a gubernatorial campaign that
year, he gave a series of speeches across
Oklahoma. After his first speech, his consultants praised the effort, but urged him
to be more hostile toward President Obama.
"While I cannot control the conduct

J.C. Watts Jr., who represented Oklahoma in the
House of Representatives
for four terms, tells the
Texas Alliance of Energy
Producers that politicians
are all too ready to take illconsidered positions on issues and refuse to consider
alternative solutions, a habit
he calls arrogance. Watts
was the luncheon keynote
speaker at the Alliance's
annual convention, held
April 22-23.

170 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

and actions of others on the Democratic
or Republican side, I always tried to have
a demeanor and a conduct that was honorable to the trust that the voters of Oklahoma, both Republican and Democrats,
had put in me," he said.
Watts reported he had seen both political parties replace the attitude of "do
unto others as you would have them do
unto you" in their playbooks with "do it
to them before they do to you."
It is not only the candidates who hold
this new philosophy, Watts asserted, but
voters as well. All too often, he said,
people tune into one channel-whether
CNN, Fox News or MSNBC-not to find
the truth but to have their opinions affirmed. Those polarized attitudes will not
help the United States solve its complex
problems such as immigration reform,
Medicare and Social Security funding,
increasing federal debt or unemployment,
he held.
"There is a difference between principal
and arrogance," Watts insisted. "Good
leaders honor their commitments, but
they are willing to honestly change their
minds when it is the right thing to do.
Our best leaders are collaborators."
Looking back at his time on Capitol
Hill, Watts recalled vigorous debates on
the issues, but said those discussions
helped initiate common solutions, not
talking points for the nightly news. Good
leaders engage in argument to challenge
each other and look for the right answers,
he said. When the debate is finished,
those leaders work together to construct
a plan that has a chance to succeed. "Our
society values teamwork. Why wouldn't
we value teamwork in our government
as well?" Watts asked.
The "greatest generation" is held up
as a model for this country, he observed,
with veterans holding the values and principles that helped win World War II. Ac-

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2014