(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday visited with oil and natural gas producers in Midland, Texas, to highlight the Trump administration’s plan to “unleash American energy.”

Zeldin is traveling nationwide to highlight EPA deregulatory efforts in individual states. It was the first time an EPA administrator had ever been to Midland, the center of oil and natural gas production in Texas.

Texas leads the U.S. in oil and natural gas production and emissions reductions, breaking records in recent years, The Center Square reported.

The visit also came at a time of uncertainty for the industry as Texas producers, operatives and business owners have expressed serious concerns about Trump administration trade policies they argue are driving up costs and causing the price of oil to crash, The Center Square reported.

Zeldin highlighted an initiative he launched last month: what he says is the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. Zeldin announced 31 actions the EPA was taking to fulfill Trump’s pledge “to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.”

The EPA’s deregulatory efforts will roll back trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden “taxes” on U.S. families, he said when announcing the 31 initiatives. “We’re unleashing energy dominance and putting more power in the hands of the states,” he said. The EPA’s deregulatory effort is about “applying common sense, unleashing energy dominance, and empowering states to do more.”

The Texas energy industry not only drives the state’s economy but also defines Texas, Cruz said; “It’s who we are. I spend a lot of time out here in Midland-Odessa because I love the people of West TX and I think the entrepreneurial spirit here is unlike any place on earth.”

Many at the roundtable expressed frustration over federal regulatory burdens they argue stifle investment, including extensive permitting delays.

Their concerns were similar to those expressed by longtime industry executive and Houston-based Richard Welch and Texas-based oil and natural gas trade associations, who have called on the Trump administration and Congress to implement permitting reforms and eliminate duplicative federal oversight, enabling states to play the primary regulatory role, The Center Square reported.

Of the 31 actions the EPA is taking, many directly impact the U.S. oil and natural gas industry, including regulations like a mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program the Biden administration implemented in the Clean Air Act that “imposed significant costs on the American energy supply;” wastewater regulations for oil and gas development; a Biden-Harris Risk Management Program rule that made U.S. oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities “less safe;” and revising a Biden-Harris “social cost of carbon” measurement that was used to advance their climate agenda, according to the EPA’s deregulation list.

Trump EPA deregulatory efforts will reduce “the cost of living for American families,” making it “more affordable to purchase a car, heat homes, and operate a business,” Zeldin argues.

Deregulatory efforts “will be more affordable to bring manufacturing into local communities while individuals widely benefit from the tangible economic impacts,” reversing Biden and Obama era regulations that “suffocated nearly every single sector of the American economy,” he said.

(The Center Square) — A shooting on Thursday on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee left two dead and five wounded, local officials say.

Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil said at a news conference that 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, the son of one of his deputies, was the alleged shooter and used one of his mother’s service weapons in the shooting. Law enforcement shot Ikner and he is hospitalized.

“We understand that you all have been devastated because of this person’s actions,” McNeil said. 

Florida State President Richard McCullough said it was a tragic day for the university and that “we’re absolutely heartbroken by the violence.”

He said Deputy Jessica Ikner, an 18-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, had provided the community with exceptional service, but that her son had access to one of her weapons, a handgun that was found at the scene. He also said investigators would probe how the weapon was used and how he got access to it. A shotgun was found at the student union building. 

The shooting began on Florida State’s campus at the student union building about noon and the university said on social media about 3:30 p.m. Eastern time that the threat had been neutralized, but advised students to stay away from campus since it is an active crime scene. 

(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is a current frontrunner for the Democratic Party for the next presidential election.

Pollsters and pundits are buzzing about the progressive New Yorker as a potential candidate after a Yale survey showed Ocasio-Cortez with a 62% favorability rating. Yale’s undergraduate-led Spring 2025 Youth Poll surveyed 4,100 “self-reported registered voters,” nearly half of which were aged 18-29.

Nate Silver, founder of polling aggregate and election forecaster FiveThirtyEight, predicted in a podcast with political podcaster Galen Druke that Ocasio-Cortez would be the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nominee, as reported by Fox News. 

The poll showed that Ocasio-Cortez has “broad appeal across the Democratic party and there’s a lot of people who could potentially get on board with her,” Druke said.

While Kamala Harris had the greatest name recognition of the Democrats provided in the survey, both she and Ocasio-Cortez received favorability ratings “at about net +60.”

Election forecaster Race to the White House has calculated an average of 18 polls from 11 pollsters since January 2024 on the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. It shows Harris leading by over 16 points. When Harris is removed, those same polls show former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the lead with 17% and Ocasio-Cortez not far behind with 14%.

Ocasio-Cortez gained national attention in 2018 when she beat incumbent Joseph Crowley in a race for the House of Representatives. She has held the seat since then. A self-proclaimed socialist, she has been speaking across the country with U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, since late February in a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.