{"id":23506,"date":"2013-01-25T09:18:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T15:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=23506"},"modified":"2013-01-25T09:45:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T15:45:46","slug":"big-changes-ahead-for-the-railroad-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/01\/25\/big-changes-ahead-for-the-railroad-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Changes Ahead for the Railroad Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo by Mira Oberman\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>

Pushes to modernize the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas drilling in Texas, are taking shape.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the Texas Tribune<\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n

The Railroad Commission of Texas regulates one of the most advanced industries in the world \u2014 oil and gas drilling. Yet the commission\u2019s software systems, many of its rules and even its name are from another era.<\/p>\n

As the 122-year-old agency confronts a drilling boom that is altering the state and national economies, an overhaul of its operations is under way. Its old mainframe computer system will be upgraded with modern digital storage, clearing the way for a more user-friendly website. Decades-old regulations are getting updated to reflect the rapid spread of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. And the Legislature may change the commission\u2019s name to accurately reflect what it does. (The commission\u2019s railroad duties ended in 2005.)<\/p>\n

The push does not go far enough for critics, who charge that the commission is too cozy with the industry it regulates and fails to adequately address environmental problems. Nonetheless, observers say there is a burst of energy, unseen in years, at the sometimes-languid commission.<\/p>\n

The changes are \u201cvery important. They\u2019re long overdue,\u201d said John Hays, a partner at the Austin law firm Hays & Owens, whose clients include oil and gas companies.<\/p>\n

The activity stems partly from new leadership. The Railroad Commission is headed by three elected commissioners, and each of the the current trio has arrived in the past three years.<\/p>\n

The drilling boom, along with increased scrutiny from the public, the Legislature and federal regulators, has also forced the commissioners\u2019 hand. Oil production in Texas rose by 18 percent between 2010 and 2011<\/a>. That has strained the permitting and inspection capabilities of the commission, whose budget<\/a> \u2014 $71.1 million this fiscal year, down from $74.7 million last year \u2014 has not kept up.<\/p>\n

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The boom is driven by high oil prices and the spread of fracking, the technique of shooting water, sand and chemicals underground to retrieve oil and gas trapped in the pores of rocks. Drilling enthusiasts \u2014 including the three commissioners \u2014 see the future as nearly boundless, as more oil and gas-bearing geologic formations are tapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening in the oil and gas patch these days is revolutionary,\u201d said Barry Smitherman, the commission chairman, at a forum held last month by The Texas Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The drilling surge has underscored the commission\u2019s shortcomings and accelerated calls for change. The Legislature, as part of a standard agency review process, called \u201csunset,\u201d is assessing the commission\u2019s effectiveness and drawing up a bill to mandate changes.<\/p>\n

Proposals<\/a> from the Sunset Advisory Commission, which conducts reviews of the efficiency of state agencies, would limit some campaign contributions the commissioners can receive, to reduce conflicts of interest with the drilling industry (which donates prolifically to the campaigns). For example, the proposals would bar the commissioners from knowingly accepting contributions from groups contesting cases before the commission.<\/p>\n

The commissioners have said that such rules would be stricter than for other state-level elected officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make decisions based upon the facts and the law,\u201d said Smitherman, who said he is \u201cunaffected by campaign contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposals also include changing the name of the commission, which was founded in 1891 to regulate railroads and added its oil and gas duties around World War I.<\/p>\n

The federal government is now the main regulator of railroads. The idea behind a name change is to clear up public confusion.<\/p>\n

Smitherman, the commission chairman, said that during his 2012 election campaign, at least one person offered him a mistaken compliment, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve ridden your railroads and your people were super-polite.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sunset committee has recommended changing the commission\u2019s name to the Texas Energy Resources Commission, though Smitherman and Porter prefer the Texas Energy Commission.<\/p>\n

Another priority is relaunching the commission\u2019s website. Christi Craddick, the newest commissioner, described the current site as \u201cawful.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s servers are so strained that users cannot access key parts of the site, such as a database of well permit applications, for several hours during the workday, and the commission struggles to add data features.<\/p>\n

Last month the commission hired a chief information officer<\/a> to overhaul the technology. The site will be relaunched \u201cas soon as possible\u201d said Smitherman. The commission has asked legislators for a $17 million budget supplement to fix the technology.<\/p>\n

The web upgrades should make it easier to more quickly process drilling paperwork, something the industry wants. It will also allow more information to be placed online, though the commission offers few specifics on the searchable features it envisions. Commissioner David Porter says that the commission is interested in putting more enforcement data online, something Rep. Rafael Anchia<\/a>, D-Dallas, has also been pushing for. \u201cQuite honestly, we don\u2019t have the capacity right now because we don\u2019t have the space on the servers to do it,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n

Another area of improvement is the drilling rules, most of which were written long before the spread of fracking. The commission is working on a rule<\/a> that would tighten safety requirements for oil and gas wells. It\u2019s an important area, known as well integrity, that Texas regulators have essentially left unaltered for more than 30 years, according to Scott Anderson, an Austin-based senior policy adviser with the Environmental Defense Fund.<\/p>\n

Another rule in the works would make it easier to recycle water from oil and gas wells \u2014 a much-discussed issue in the drought-ravaged state. The commission is also working on tightening oversight of \u201cdisposal\u201d wells, where chemical-laced waste from fracking processes gets buried.<\/p>\n

The rule-making activity is \u201ca lot more than we\u2019ve seen in past years,\u201d said Teddy Carter, vice president of government affairs for the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association.<\/p>\n

Anderson says that the environmental community\u2019s wish-list includes more rules, on issues like storing waste in pits and monitoring well-heads for overly high pressures.<\/p>\n

Smitherman says enforcing existing rules is also a priority. The commission has faced criticism on this from the sunset commission, whose recent report says it \u201cneeds to take additional enforcement action to deter serious and repeat violations.\u201d In the first quarter of fiscal 2013, the commission says its inspectors found about 13,500 alleged violations, including 163 major ones<\/a>, but it assessed total penalties of just $177,475.<\/p>\n

The commission has increased its penalties for repeat offenders, and Smitherman said he intended to create an enforcement division of the commission, probably during the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy making it a stand-alone division, we communicate that it\u2019s important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Critics say the commission does a poor job of addressing drilling problems.<\/p>\n

Sharon Wilson<\/a>, a Texas-based organizer for Earthworks, an environmental nonprofit, said that when people call her about contamination concerns on their property and she suggests reporting the problems to the Railroad Commission, \u201cthey actually get angry with me because they feel that\u2019s not going to get them anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drilling industry, Wilson added, \u201chas way too much influence in that agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in their stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/h5>\n

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune<\/a> at http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/01\/25\/texas-railroad-commission-takes-steps-modernize\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Texas Tribune:\u00a0 The Railroad Commission of Texas regulates one of the most advanced industries in the world \u2014 oil and gas drilling. Yet the commission\u2019s software systems, many of its rules and even its name are from another era. As the 122-year-old agency confronts a drilling boom that is altering the state and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":2536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[50],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}