The Texas Railroad Commission Chairman loves the Lone Star State so much that he says he has devoted much of his public sector career to preparing the state to secede from the union if necessary.
Barry Smitherman, who is seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general, is worried about how America’s economic instability will affect the rest of the country, but he has no qualms about the fate of Texas because of its isolationist practices. According to him, Texas has all of the resources needed to become independent of the rest of the country.
“We are uniquely situated because we have energy resources, fossil and otherwise, and our own independent electrical grid,” Smitherman told World Net Daily. “Generally speaking, we have made great progress in becoming an independent nation, an ‘island nation’ if you will, and I think we want to continue down that path so that if the rest of the country falls apart, Texas can operate as a stand-alone entity with energy, food, water and roads as if we were a closed-loop system.”
Smitherman said that as a Texas official, it was his duty to prepare the state for a future possibly without the rest of the country.
“This was one of my goals at the Utility Commission and it is one my goals currently as chairman of the Railroad Commission,” he said. “That’s why I stress so vehemently oil and gas production, permitting turnaround times, and everything that enables the industry to produce as much as it can, as quickly as it can.”
This past year, Exxon Mobil, one of the leading oil companies, moved its headquarters to just north of Houston, neighboring other major oil companies including Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Huntsman Corp., and Baker Hughes Inc. According to WND, it’s speculated that Exxon moved to Texas to feel safer during America’s economic crisis.
And according to a May American Legislative Exchange Council report, more Americans have been relocating to Texas due in part to more jobs and no income taxes.
Smitherman isn’t the first Texas official to mention the state’s future sans the rest of the union. In 2009, Republican Gov. Rick Perry said that Texans may want to secede because of their dissatisfaction with Washington politicians.
