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September 23, 2016      6:32 PM

In Texas Energy Report: Energy all-star panel reveals legislative game plan for oil and gas

Fast-tracking Railroad Commission Sunset, tapping $10 billion Rainy Day Fund and more

HOUSTON – A long-elusive sunset bill to reauthorize the oil-and-gas regulating Texas Railroad Commission for 12 more years will be fast-tracked next spring and stripped clean of such controversies as replacing the agency’s outdated name or moving certain functions elsewhere, a key lawmaker said Friday.

Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, chair of the Sunset Advisory Committee, promised members of the state’s leading oil and gas lobby that the RRC’s sunset bill will contain what members of his committee deem necessary instead of the traditional recommendations of the Sunset Advisory Commission staff.

“The idea is the (sunset) staff won’t write the bill. We the committee will write the bill. I would like to see the sunset legislation in the first 60 days. We’re going to take the Railroad Commission up early on the House side so it is not changed so much in May and becomes this terrible thing that won’t pass anymore,” said Gonzales, referring to the legislature’s practice of tagging otherwise dead or “zombie” bills on to sunset legislation.

In the Senate, “We will pass a Railroad Commission Sunset bill, and it will be a clean bill,” added Sen. Craig Estes, incoming chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee. “It won’t have any bells or whistles on it to drag it down.”

The full story is in the Texas Energy Report.