{"id":34653,"date":"2014-02-24T11:36:44","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T17:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=34653"},"modified":"2014-02-26T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T15:46:00","slug":"why-you-should-pay-attention-to-the-race-for-railroad-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/02\/24\/why-you-should-pay-attention-to-the-race-for-railroad-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Pay Attention to the Race for Railroad Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Charles<\/a>

Photo by Mose Buchele<\/p>

Charles Matthews served on the Railroad Commission of Texas from 1995 to 2005, including time as Chairman.<\/p><\/div>\n

In an often-quoted scene from the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood<\/a>,<\/i> sociopathic oilman Daniel Plainview meets his rival for the last time. If oil fields are like milkshakes, he says, it pays to have a straw that reaches all the way across the room “and starts to drink your<\/em> milkshake.”<\/p>\n

“I. Drink. Your. Milkshake,” Plainview screams maniacally, “I DRINK IT UP!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Texans will have the chance to vote for \u00a0a seat on the Railroad Commission of Texas<\/a>. But the commission has a lot more to do with milkshakes than railroads. It\u00a0regulates oil and gas in Texas.<\/p>\n

“The commission acts like a court,” Charles Matthews explains.\u00a0 Matthews served on the three-member commission from 1995 to 2005, before stepping down to become Chancellor of Texas State University.<\/p>\n

That three-person “court” often decides on disputes between oil and gas drillers, to make sure nobody drinks anyone else’s milkshake.<\/p>\n

“The oil business is a lot about ‘Close-ology:’,” Matthews says. “The closer you can get, the better chance you have of hitting a well.”
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Much More than Milkshakes<\/h4>\n

While settling disputes between drillers may be one of the most important commission functions from the industry’s perspective, there are plenty of other reasons to pay attention to the race. After all, it regulates huge swaths of the Texas oil, gas and mining industries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the thing that just terrified me the most was the pipelines,” Matthews recalls.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

He says there were 260 thousand miles of pipeline in the state when he served. He worried about leaks or explosions all the time, because “you’ve got inspectors out there, but there’s not any way in the world that anybody can monitor every day all of the time 260 thousand miles of that pipe \u00a0underground.”<\/p>\n