Powering the Permian - how national policies could affect local industries in upcoming presidential election

ODESSA, Texas - (KMID/KPEJ) The race to the White House has under 3 months left to go.
How could who's elected president, and their beliefs affect the local economy in the Permian Basin? Specifically, oil and gas jobs.

ABC Big 2’s Chris Talley spoke with the owner of a local petroleum company about how he and many others might be affected by the upcoming presidential election.

"This affects everybody in our population here, especially in Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas," said Kirk Edwards, President and CEO of Latigo Petroleum in Odessa.

Since the 1980s, Edwards has operated the company and says he's no stranger to how politics nationally have affected how he conducts business.

“Somehow in the past few decades it became a "political football" and we've seen it go both ways – there's no doubt about it,” Edwards said.

“We see these political candidates, especially [in] the presidency – [that has a] huge sway in the policy  towards the oil and gas industry. It can be very favorable, and it can be very punitive. Right now, we are at a very punitive stage with President Biden. We were in a good stage with President Trump, but maybe it was too good, because too much oil got pumped on the market and the price was driven way down. It's massively affected [by] who is ...