TX Railroad Commission Incumbent Has $10 Million In Election Funds; Her Three Opponents $30,000 In Total

[hatrack]

The list of campaign contributions to incumbent oil and gas regulator Christi Craddick reads like a who’s who of Texas fossil fuel billionaires. There’s West Texas oilman Tim Dunn, Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren and recently deceased Endeavor Energy founder Autry Stephens. All told, the Midland Republican running for her third term on the Railroad Commission has raked in more than $10 million since 2019, according to reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. In comparison, Craddick’s three opponents for the seat have raised less than $30,000 total. Commissioners can accept campaign contributions throughout their six-year terms in office, unlike state legislative and judicial candidates, who are limited to defined election periods.

Craddick’s opponents are Democrat Katherine Culbert, a process safety engineer in Houston, Libertarian Hawk Dunlap, a well control specialist in the Permian Basin, and Eddie Espinoza of the Green Party. Early voting began Monday. The results of the race will shape environmental and climate outcomes in Texas for years to come. The three elected commissioners manage funds to plug orphan wells and vote on permits to flare methane and drill injection wells, decisions that can make or cost oil and gas companies money. The sitting commissioners, Craddick, Wayne Christian and Jim Wright, have staunchly opposed environmental and climate policy under the Biden-Harris administration.

Texas Republicans have not lost a statewide race since 1994. But that hasn’t stopped Texas oil and gas executives from opening their pursestrings. Craddick out-fundraised all previous Railroad Commission campaigns, according to the campaign finance accountability group Open Secrets.

EDIT

Craddick said that under Biden, the Railroad Commission has relied on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to bring lawsuits against new environmental and climate policies. Craddick has also criticized the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which she calls the Green New Deal. Even so, the Railroad Commission is accessing funds from the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, both passed under Biden, to plug orphan wells. Texas has more than 8,000 orphan wells, which release harmful air toxics and greenhouse gases and can contaminate soil and groundwater. New wells are continually added to the list. Appearing on the Crude Truth podcast in February 2024, Craddick said Texas would take the federal money despite her criticisms of the law. “The Green New Deal is bad,” she said. “But this, we decided we would access dollars. It’s your tax dollars anyway so we might as well use it.”

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102024/millions-pour-in-to-reelect-texas-oil-and-gas-regulator/

[marble falls]

1. The Railroad Commision is a point of back door politics and graft and does very, very little about rail roads.

[TwilightZone]

2. It's not intended to have anything to do with the railroads.

The last of the rail functions were transferred to TxDOT in 2005. It started off as a rail regulation agency, but expanded greatly over time. Most of the original functions were transferred to other agencies decades ago.

The railroad commission is responsible for regulation of "oil and natural gas industry, pipeline transporters, natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline industry, natural gas utilities, the LP-gas industry, critical natural gas infrastructure, and coal and uranium surface mining operations."

https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/

[marble falls]

4. No, say it ain't so. It's called the railroad commission to keep a low profile.

[2naSalit]

3. No surprise there.

It's Texas.

[hatrack]

5. Collectively, the US Oil industry injects 12 billion barrels of fracking waste/year into the ground

Much of that is in Texas, now home to exciting new geological attractions:

Apache Corp. sounded an alarm in 2017 that few appeared to hear. The Houston oil company warned of potentially dangerous faults and fractures in its Reeves County oil field that could allow the oil industry’s toxic wastewater to flow into protected groundwater and natural springs, regulatory filings show.

Seven years later, a saltwater geyser carrying poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas erupted from the same field, outside Toyah, shooting 100 feet high. It also appeared to contain oil. The geyser, still gushing two weeks later, is a black eye for Texas regulators responsible for preventing and addressing these types of oil field failures. The blowout at an old well, once owned by a Kinder Morgan subsidiary, comes just weeks before the oil industry’s most powerful regulator, Railroad Commission Chairman Christi Craddick, faces a contested reelection bid.

“Chairman Craddick takes the recent events in West Texas seriously,” Craddick’s Director of Public Affairs Mia Hutchens Hale said Tuesday in a statement, noting “a recent uptick in activity is undeniable.” Hale added that Craddick has a record of “meaningful” and “impactful” regulation and said the commission is “actively analyzing data” to better understand and address the forces causing problems in West Texas.

The geyser erupted weeks after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake rattled West Texas and sent tremors through Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. Earthquakes in the region have been linked to the oil and gas industry’s practice of injecting wastewater underground. It remains unclear what caused the geyser, which has erupted in an area with complex geology not visible to the naked eye. But experts say it is possible that Apache’s warnings came true, and that faults beneath the oil field’s surface allowed water to travel underground and into an old well.

EDIT

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/who-s-to-blame-for-the-geyser-still-erupting-in-west-texas-documents-start-to-unravel-mystery/ar-AA1smJ3m

If something can't go on forever, it won't.

[2naSalit]

6. +1

I recall when that started happening. I knew what it was from immediately.

[Firestorm49]

7. Sounds like they own her, lock, stock and barrel. Pun intended