Submitted by Cyrus Reed
In a cowardly and secretive act, the conference committee members of HB 3123, led by Sen. Jane Nelson and Rep. Four Price, have added a last-minute Sunset Review provision in the Conference Committee Report that would delay a full-scale review of the Railroad Commission until 2023. The agency in charge of regulating oil and gas activity in Texas is due for a full-scale review, as all state agencies are required to do, in 2017. After failing to take action in 2011 and 2013 by passing a Sunset reform bill of the Railroad Commission of Texas, key members of the Texas Legislature are now trying to delay it further.
In response to this move, Cyrus Reed, Conservation Director of Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, issued the following statement:
“The Railroad Commission of Texas needs fixing badly. Its antiquated name alone tells everybody that. It has failed to deal with the problems of urban drilling, failed to adequately monitor issues with injection wells – including their link to earthquakes – and failed to respond to citizen complaints in a timely manner. It has also failed to modernize its access to data or offer more than a slap on the wrist to oil and gas companies that violate our laws.
For our leaders – especially leaders with the pedigree of Sen. Nelson – to suggest that we don’t need to bother looking under the hood of this vital state agency until eight years from now is outrageous.
The Sierra Club calls on all political leaders – Democratsand Republicans, Representatives and Senators – to tell the conferees of HB 3123 to come up with a better plan. The Railroad Commission should and must be reviewed in 2017, especially to investigate how they are coping with urban drilling in the wake of HB 40. Eight years from now is dangerously negligent.”