Abbott signed an executive order during a press conference in Odessa on Thursday, which directed all state agencies to sue the Biden administration for any federal actions that threaten the Lone Star state's energy sector.

"Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack launched from Washington D.C.," Abbott said. "President Biden's embrace of the green new deal is a job killer in Texas. It also takes a wrecking ball to the energy independence that Texas has been able to provide to the United States of America and Texas is not going to stand idly by and watch the Biden administration kill jobs in Midland, in Odessa or any other place across the entire region," he added.

Abbott's order (pdf) came on the heels of a series of executive actions taken by President Joe Biden in the name of fighting "climate change." These include the decision to revoke authorization for the Keystone pipeline, the decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, and a moratorium on issuing new oil and gas leases on federal land and waters.

While Biden's actions have drawn fire from Republicans, industry groups, and even some Democrats, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said at a Wednesday press briefing at the White House that Biden wants to make sure workers in the energy industry "have better choices" in jobs that "pay better" and are "cleaner," giving the example of being a solar power technician instead of being a miner. Kerry also claimed that it's a false notion that "dealing with climate" comes at the expense of energy workers, adding that there is "a lot of money to be made" in the creation of new "healthier" jobs in sectors such as green hydrogen, geothermal heat, and other renewables.