The Braindead Email of the Week Just Landed in My Inbox

Back in 2011, some Republicans in the Texas Legislature introduced a bill to change the name of the Texas Railroad Commission, which has regulated the Texas oil and gas industry since the early 20th century, to the more germane “Texas Energy Commission.” It was an idea that first came up in the late 1990s, one that I and many others in the industry detested because the RRC has played such a leading role in regulating the industry for so many years. If the public was unaware of that, then that meant the schools were failing, not the RRC or its members.

The sponsors of this stupid bill justified the effort based on a poll that showed something like 70% of Texas voters had no idea what the RRC was or that it regulated the oil and gas business. They even had the support of one of the commissioners, I forget which one now. It might’ve been Michael Williams. I’m not certain of that, but it sounds like something he would have done.

To give you an idea how wasteful this concept is, understand that every one of the more than 100,000 well sites active in Texas today must have a sign with a RRC permit number posted at their location. It would cost millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars to replace all those signs. In 2011, it would have cost well over half a million dollars just to buy new letterhead for the Commission. It’s just the dumbest idea ever.

Anyway, I was in a leadership role for Texas issues at that time for one of our national trade associations, so I went to the board and got approval to oppose the bill on behalf of its members, which consisted of 33 of the largest independent producers in the US. We worked hand in glove with Clayton Williams and other industry interests to kill the damn thing dead, and we were able to do that very quickly. Took a couple of weeks. Maybe less.