In preparation for the incoming presidential administration, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller visited the Brazos Valley during a media tour to discuss current issues surrounding Texas agriculture and rural communities.
As a vocal supporter of president-elect Donald Trump, Miller said he is looking forward to economic growth and improved support for Texas farmers under the new administration.
“There’s no profit in agriculture other than the beef market right now,” Miller said. “I’m looking forward to the Trump administration coming back and using tariffs as a bargaining tool like he did the last administration and moving some of our agricultural products.”
The tariffs proposed by Trump range from 10 to 20% on all goods imported from other countries. Proponents argue it would protect U.S. manufacturing and raise federal revenue, but the National Retail Federation estimates that implementing the tariffs would reduce Americans’ spending power by between $46 billion and $78 billion annually.
“I think through the new office of DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency], … we’ll see that happen,” Miller said about removing federal environmental regulations. “Some of them that will be cut will be declaring the 600,000 acres [banned from] offshore drilling that Biden just did an executive order on.”
On Monday, the White House announced that future oil and gas drilling will be banned along more than 625 million acres of coastal areas. The area includes the entire East coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
“That will be reversed,” Miller said. “That regulation will be one of the first ones to go.”
Miller has served as the state agricultural commissioner since 2015 and was previously a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013. He was reelected in 2022 and serves until the 2026 elections. Miller has focused on removing regulations and decreasing government oversight on Texas farmers, which has led him opposing various federal proposals — such as one listing the monarch butterfly as threatened.
“This proposal is just wrong,” Miller said. “It’ll do nothing to help the monarch, but it’s a job-killer … The largest problem is the overwintering grounds in Mexico … that forest, through Mexico’s deforestation, has lost 98% of the forest. It’s gone. Only 2% of the forest is left. So if you want to fix the declining numbers of the monarch butterfly, restore their habitat.”
Federal conservationists estimate that by 2080, the probability of the monarch butterfly facing extinction is greater than 99%, largely due to the degradation of the species’ habitat as well as exposure to insecticides and the effects of climate change. If the monarch butterfly is granted federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would determine what protections are needed to recover the species’ numbers.
“I don’t think we need to spend tax dollars on it,” Miller said. “I don’t think there would be any problem raising private money to make that happen.”
Federal protections could range from protecting the butterfly’s California habitat to increasing breeding programs across the country. Miller’s positions have faced significant backlash from others in the agricultural industry, with his recent statements on the protection of the monarch butterfly contradicting American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall.
“Preserving natural surroundings for America’s wildlife has long been a priority for farmers and ranchers,” Duvall said in a statement. “That dedication extends to the monarch butterfly. The use of a 4(d) rule acknowledges the work farmers are undertaking to protect the monarch while recognizing the need for flexibility in conservation efforts between diverse regions and crops.”
Conservation of Texas’ natural resources also includes preserving the limited amount of water in the state. After a lower than expected rainfall in 2024 due to extreme droughts, water supply is expected to be a high-priority issue in the new upcoming legislative session.
“We’ve run out of water,” Miller said. “There’s only a certain amount of surface water in the state, and all of it is allocated. We’ve been through some droughts, so [a] lot of our reservoirs and lakes are low. So we’ve got to do a better job of managing our water resources.”
Miller said the state needs to improve water infrastructure in growing cities and embrace technologies such as desalinization and rainwater harvesting.
“There’s a lot of things that we can do to alleviate our situation,” Miller said. “We’re just not doing any of them or at least not enough of them.”
