The "bust" in oil exploration and production has left families, companies, both large and small, with bankruptcy and hundreds of thousands out of work.  Since Thanksgiving of 2014, Saudi Arabia has increased its production to lower prices to shut-in unconventional oil in all areas of the US but specifically in Texas, Oklahoma and Appalachia where "stripper or marginal wells" are more prevalent. It is a price war which has suspended the prospect of American energy self-sufficiency.

The Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative for oil import quotas on foreign oil is nothing new.  It aims to revive the 1959 quota system of President Eisenhower who acted to sustain a healthy oil industry and middle class communities which it employs for reasons of national security.  And it worked for 14 years to keep domestic oil from going out business because of foreign imports. The complete press release is here->