August 23, 2016 12:35 AM

In Texas Energy Report: Railroad Commission gliding along a kinder, gentler sunset path?

Lawmaker equates 12-year review to an angry “attack” on agency

The state’s powerful oil and gas industry and its obscurely named regulators might be in for a kinder, gentler sunset bill next spring, based on industry-friendly questions posed by members of the Sunset Advisory Commission on Monday.

The Texas Railroad Commission underwent two failed sunset reviews in a row (2011 and 2013) to reform and reauthorize the agency for 12 more years. But, if first-blush impressions are a reliable guide, it could find the third time in five years the charm.

At the Railroad Commission’s first formal hearing before the Sunset Commission, charged with adopting or rejecting reform-minded recommendations, the staff conducting the review appeared more under the gun than the target agency itself.

Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, told sunset staffers that when he read their report recommending good-government-type changes, “I thought to myself, why are you so angry at the Railroad Commission? They’ve done a pretty good job.”

“The oil and gas industry is the heart and soul of Texas. For us to go and attack an agency that’s done a pretty good job, for us to change something that’s been working pretty well, that just doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

Sunset Commission Executive Director Ken Levine said he felt obliged to respond to Flynn.

The rest of the story is in the Texas Energy Report.

By Polly Ross Hughes