Sen. Tim Scott gets a first hand look at the fracking patch in West Texas

Midland Reporter-News:

Newly named to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Scott decided he needed an up-close look at how energy was actually produced.

So the Republican from South Carolina, appointed this past December to succeed Jim DeMint, came to Midland this week to tour some oil sites. His visit was the second from a senator considered a rising star in the Republican Party. He arrived the same day the newest senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, held a town hall meeting at the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum.

“He called me and wanted to come to West Texas,” said Ernest Angelo, a former Midland mayor and Republican National Committeeman who accompanied Scott to a Fasken Oil and Ranch well site where a hydraulic fracturing job was being performed. “He’s on the Energy Committee and wanted the opportunity to learn something about what’s going on in the oil industry. He asked a lot of pertinent questions, and I thought it was a good idea.”

There were three reasons he wanted to visit West Texas oil fields, said Scott, who visited a drilling rig after he left Fasken’s Fee “BK” #1714. First, he said he wanted to go to the site and learn firsthand the process of extracting oil and natural gas.

Second, he said he wanted to see how technological advances had made possible the rejuvenation of the domestic oil and gas industry.

And third, he said, “As I believe energy is part of the innovation economy of our future, my objective was to learn more so I can made better decisions for our country. No matter how much you read about how the oil and gas industry works, it doesn’t compare to experiencing it first hand.”

Surrounded by large trucks, piles of 20/40 fracturing sand and hoses snaking across the site, Scott listened intently as Travis White, a petroleum engineer with Fasken, explained how they were planning to fracture Fasken’s Fee “BK” #1714.

“He seemed to earnestly want to learn about the oil and gas business,” said Mark Merritt, assistant general manager, oil and gas at Fasken, who helped host Scott’s visit. “He has a pro-business view and wants to help America move toward energy independence. I think it speaks highly of him that he wants to come out in the field and see drilling and hydraulic fracturing for himself.”
...

There is more.

Sen. Scott is an intelligent man who sees the potential for balancing our trade posture and our budget and returning the economy to a 5 percent growth pattern.  It is too bad that others in Washington have not shown the same interest in the technology that will drive our economy for decades to come.   The unemployment rate in Midland is now below 4 percent and people working in fast food restaurants are making around $20 an hour.  A growing economy is a better driver of wages than government is.