{"id":25727,"date":"2013-03-26T14:07:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T19:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=25727"},"modified":"2013-03-26T14:58:18","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T19:58:18","slug":"bickering-erupts-among-texas-oil-regulators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/03\/26\/bickering-erupts-among-texas-oil-regulators\/","title":{"rendered":"Bickering Erupts Among Texas Oil Regulators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Tamir Kalifa<\/p>

The Texas Railroad Commission, comprised of Chairman Barry T. Smitherman (center), and commissioners David Porter (left) and Christi Craddick (right) hold an open meeting in Austin, Texas on Jan. 15, 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

A day before an\u00a0important legislative hearing about the future of the Texas Railroad Commission<\/a>, interpersonal tensions boiled over at an open meeting of the three commissioners who head the agency.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting began routinely, with discussion of oil and gas cases. The commissioners also voted to approve new rules to make recycling of oilfield water easier \u2014 a change that both industry groups and environmentalists have sought amid water scarcity concerns. Commissioner David Porter hailed the new measure as an “incredible step forward,” and the other two commissioners also praised it. (The new rule will take effect on April 15.)<\/p>\n

About an hour in, however, the meeting got tense. Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman began grilling Porter about a 113-page\u00a0report on the Eagle Ford Shale<\/a>\u00a0that Porter had put together (with input from local officials and industry groups) and published this month.\u00a0As has been previously reported<\/a>, Smitherman was irked because he did not see a copy of the report before Porter circulated it to news outlets.<\/p>\n

Smitherman noted how \u201cvery, very slick\u201d the report was \u2014 with such high-quality paper that his pen could not mark it up. He asked Porter how much the report had cost to compile and who had funded it. \u201cDid you pay for it personally, or was it paid for by the commission?\u201d Smitherman asked.<\/p>\n

Porter did not know the cost of the report offhand. As for the funding source, \u201csome of it was paid by the campaign personally,\u201d and some by the Railroad Commission office, Porter said.<\/p>\n

Smitherman, a\u00a0former prosecutor<\/a>, proceeded for about 25 minutes to ask Porter about specific items \u2014 maps, recommendations, analysis \u2014 in the report. Porter did not have the report with him, and someone went to retrieve a copy from his office.<\/p>\n

Smitherman spent several minutes on a provision in the report which quoted Porter as having directed the Railroad Commission staff “to apply a higher level of scrutiny to applications for flaring and venting operations.” (Flaring, which refers to\u00a0the burning of natural gas that can\u2019t be otherwise used,\u00a0is a concern in the Eagle Ford and elsewhere in Texas, because of air emissions and also the waste of gas.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this a new requirement that you have unilaterally put in place?\u201d Smitherman asked Porter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Porter responded. \u201cThis was something that was discussed with staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smitherman said that he\u2019d like to get a report from the commission’s legal staff on whether oil and gas operators will now be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny because of Porter’s report.<\/p>\n

After Smitherman finished grilling Porter, he moved the discussion on to sunset legislation, which gets heard in the House Energy Resources Committee on Wednesday afternoon. (Sunset legislation refers to a standard review process by the Legislature. All major Texas state agencies go through it periodically, and it typically results in modest changes to the structure of an agency.) The three commissioners are all testifying in Natural Resources hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The commissioners erupted anew in debate, this time over the structure of the commission, which will be addressed in Wednesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Chairman, there is something I would like you to clarify for me,\u201d Porter said to Smitherman.<\/p>\n

Porter was concerned about a proposal Smitherman had recently circulated to several key lawmakers \u2014 including State Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee, and State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, who is carrying the Railroad Commission\u00a0sunset bill<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 about proposed changes to the commission\u2019s structure. According to Smitherman, his proposal would ensure that the commission chairman served as the commission\u2019s point-person for the Legislature.<\/p>\n

But Porter accused Smitherman of seeking to create a \u201csuper-chairman.\u201d Smitherman denied this, saying that his proposal provides for the rotation of the chairmanship, which Porter would assume in January 2015 and Christi Craddick would assume in 2017. \u201cThis proposal doesn\u2019t even apply to me,\u201d Smitherman said, meaning that he would no longer be chairman when the provision about the liaising with the Legislature took effect.<\/p>\n

Craddick, who had been silent throughout the Eagle Ford Task Force exchange, interjected that Smitherman\u2019s proposal had not been shown to her or Porter before its circulation to the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m somewhat offended, Barry, you\u2019ve been shopping this proposal and handing it out\u201d without consulting the other two commissioners, she said. It was, she added, \u201ckind of like [how Commissioner] David [Porter] gave you a copy of his report and you poured him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craddick said she was against the proposal.<\/p>\n

For those who want to see the Railroad Commission meeting, the archived\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0will soon be posted here.<\/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\/03\/26\/bickering-erupts-among-texas-oil-regulators\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Texas Tribune:\u00a0 A day before an\u00a0important legislative hearing about the future of the Texas Railroad Commission, interpersonal tensions boiled over at an open meeting of the three commissioners who head the agency. Tuesday\u2019s meeting began routinely, with discussion of oil and gas cases. The commissioners also voted to approve new rules to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":25730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[50,310],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25727"}],"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=25727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25734,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25727\/revisions\/25734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}