OFF Methane---1NC Existing source methane regulations are coming now. They require significant EPA resources, and are critical to meeting international climate commitments. Leber 21 [Rebecca Leber, covers climate change for Vox; Published: 6-1-2021; "There’s a ticking climate time bomb in West Texas"; Vox; Accessed: 7-14-2021; https://www.vox.com/22407581/gas-texas-biden-climate-change-methane-permian-basin]//KL Around 265 million years ago, much of modern-day Texas was underwater, and the vast region known as the Permian Basin was a flourishing coral reef. Today, the organisms that once thrived there have been The Permian Basin, which stretches hundreds of miles across West Texas and southeast New Mexico, accounts for 40 percent of US oil production and 15 percent of its natural gas, according to transformed into enormous deposits of fossil fuels — and they have made the area one of the most treacherous front lines in President Joe Biden’s domestic fight against climate change. is the nation’s No. 1 source of methane, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet far more efficiently than carbon dioxide in the short term. The US oil and gas industry has pinned much of its future hopes on the region, especially in the next decade: If it gets its way, the Permian Basin will still grow through 2029, outranking every country except for Saudi Arabia in liquid fuel production, according to one analysis from Oil Change International. At this rate, by 2050, it would account for 39 percent of the world’s new oil and gas emissions. The world can’t afford this if it is to meet international climate goals . That’s what the International Energy Agency recently made clear in a report that argued for halting new investment in fossil fuel production, starting in 2021. Yet under Biden, the Permian could undergo expansion if the industry sees through its plans to export its gas and oil. That means any credible US response to the climate crisis will need to include a plan for the West Texas Permian Basin. But wrangling Texas oil and gas emissions could test President Biden’s powers like nothing else . When Biden signaled early in his presidency that fighting climate change must involve reining in the fossil fuel industry, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott February data. Less than a year after oil prices dipped into negative territory because of the Covid-19 pandemic, production in the region has bounced back almost to pre-pandemic levels. Already, the region immediately signaled that he would protect the state’s oil and gas industry at all costs. On January 28, Abbott signed an executive order to direct every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatened the Texas energy sector. Biden has committed to slash US climate pollution in half by 2030 to contain the worst of global warming, but the administration has few levers to limit pollution in a red state infamous for deregulating the industry. The Texas side of the Permian is the biggest challenge. The land is entirely state- and privately-held, compared to the federal lands in New Mexico, which makes it hard to discourage future oil production by blocking new leases. And unlike New Mexico, the state regulators and politicians have shown no interest in coming to terms with the Permian’s pollution. That leaves the Biden administration with a thorny choice: It could take a gentler approach and regulate the Permian’s climate emissions but risk not doing enough. Or it could swing a political sledgehammer by declaring a climate emergency and cutting off the Permian from its global customers — which could provoke intense backlash from Abbott, industry, and voters in upcoming elections. Sharon Wilson, an environmental activist with Earthworks, worries the Biden administration is underestimating the challenges, estimating it ’s “ going to take army” to enforce environmental rules in West Texas something like an The Texas regulatory agencies are underfunded, and they are understaffed, and they’re not really motivated. I don’t think that the Biden administration has a .“ realistic picture of what it’s going to take to enforce these methane rules,” she says. There is no easy answer here, but environmentalists intend on pushing Biden to go bigger and bolder in the Lone Star State. Texas won’t go along without a fight. Perhaps nowhere in the country captures the test of political limits of the Environmental Protection Agency under Biden — better than th