Posted on 12/20/2024 2:24:20 PM PST by JeepersFreepers
On Tuesday, the Texas Railroad Commission unanimously approved new environmental rules for the state’s oil and gas industry. The new state rules are expected to impose new costs and make the state’s oil and gas industry less productive in 2025, even as the incoming Trump administration promises to cut such red tape nationally.
All three commissioners are Republicans, elected statewide to staggered six-year terms, but the new rules were crafted to benefit the environmental lobby rather than the state’s economy. Their new rule was proposed under the pretense of addressing pollution and safety issues, which advocates and opponents alike said would make it more expensive for oil and gas producers in Texas.
Leading up to and since the November election, President Donald Trump has promised to roll back rules and regulations seen as impeding the “drill, baby, drill” ethos of his domestic energy program.
None of the three Republican commissioners—Wayne Christian, Christi Craddick, and Jim Wright—responded to inquiries from Texas Scorecard about the rule’s impact on the Texas economy and President Trump’s national energy agenda.
Comments submitted by various oil and gas operators before the vote expressed surprise that the commission would even consider such a rule. For example, the owners of Momentum Operating, based in Albany, Texas, wrote that the proposal ignores “significant regional geographic, geologic and ecologic differences in Texas” as well as the “physical, economic and operational differences” in the industry.
In a press release after the vote, Wright described the process as an effort “modernize” the commission’s rules. Christian described opposition to the push as coming from “radical environmental groups,” despite supportive comments from leftwing groups like the Sierra Club and Commission Shift. He described the measure as “commonsense, balanced regulation” for the industry.
Nate Dunning of the Young Conservatives of Texas had described the rules as anything but balanced.
“This will hurt families, businesses, and communities that depend on the industry for jobs, stability, and energy security.”
I am especially surprised that Wayne Christian voted to approve these new regulations. He was the darling of Tea Parties across Texas when they were active. He has won the following awards: Taxpayer Champion - Texans for Fiscal Responsibility; National Hero of Faith - Vision America; Defender of Life - Texas Right to Life; Fighter for Free Enterprise - Texas Association of Business; Lifetime Achievement Award - Young Conservatives of Texas; Defender of the American Dream - Americans for Prosperity; Freedom and Family Award - Texas Eagle Forum.
This is nuts. They want to increase gas prices as Trump takes over.
Can they be impeached or removed from office or recalled? I’m unfamiliar with the rules regarding their offices in Texas.
Utter insanity. This garbage just keeps occurring here. They are not only RINOs, they are extorted, or bribed, or somehow paid in a scheme they rationalize if “just fine.”
We need a [legal] method to get rid of liars who do not keep promises on issues that are as serious as this.
Since it’s Texas, don’t they just lasso the varmints and drag them out of their office and through a cactus patch to let them know they need to resign?
Dems running as Republicans is real problem and not just in Texas. The jerk that is Replacing Romney is a filthy rat who switched parties and probably got money from Mitch to get in.
Has anyone on FR actually read the rules in question rather than leave all reaction to this other website?
Must have gotten railroaded.
My first instinct here is plain ole vanilla corruption. I suspect this ruling was bought, and these people's (and their friends and families) finances should be subject to scrutiny.
I just had to take a certification exam for hauling CNG in Texas as CNG is regulated by the Texas RailRoad Commission. The enviro-wacko stuff goes far and deep. It will take a BIG hatchet and shovel to root out th3 corruption in that group.
Well done.
I scrolled through it. Nothing looks outrageous, or even more extreme than previous years.
No idea what the complaints are about.
It is for sure, although these three are not new, and did not seem like full fledged RINOs. They even fooled generally very trustworthy conservative organizations.
I am incensed at this outright betrayal. Zero of the three will be re-elected.
We always find out such things when Republicans have won. These three could behave neutrally while Dems had more power, but when the pressure is on to preserve communofascist ways, they rise to the occasion. There must be nefarious components involved also.
We need closed primaries. We need our party (both state and local) to decertify and remove traitors from membership.
Does that work?
Maybe so!
Anyone have a horse to spare?
If I had to guess, I would guess the website throwing a fit may have encountered the paragraphs on plugging wells for the first time.
Plug and Abandon is the eventual fate of essentially all oil wells. They get drained. The law requires them to be capped. The relevant Halliburton or Baker Hughes people are called and they deploy their Plug & Abandon divisions to cap the empty well.
When permits to drill are granted, the application requires the applicant to have money escrowed to pay for the eventual P&A. If someone was not aware of this and only now encountered the talk of such things, that someone might think this was some enviro extremism.
Notice the push to pass all this crap nationwide right before Trump takes over....
I know Christi Craddick and her dad. He was a snake. She is an idiot and a snake.
Democrats in Texas run as Republicans to get elected.
How true. Look at Dade Phelan.
They have to follow the orders of their masters, usually the oil companies. They betrayed the oil companies this time.
They’ll pay for this when they come up for re-election.
Then they’ll become lobbyists.
We need closed primaries.
WE NEED CLOSED PRIMARIES!
.
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