Energy Money Behind Texas Railroad Commission Speaks Louder Than Texas’ Citizens

[TexasTowelie]

By Carol Morgan

With the worship of the Texas Miracle and the subsequent injection of oil and gas money into political races, it’s hard to believe that Texans didn’t see this coming.

As a result of voter blindness, Texas has a proxy government that’s calling all the shots and undermining the governance of the Texas Legislature.

The TRC used to be content with merely buying politicians who would further their agenda, but in the last year, they’ve grown increasingly emboldened by their lock on power. And so have the energy companies that purchased the agency and the individuals who administrate it.
[link:http://lubbockonline.com/lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-05-07/texas-oil-and-gas-kingmakers|
Way back in May, I complained about the fact that oil and gas has way too much sway over who gets elected to office.]

Six months later, Texas watched as Denton citizens voted a ban on fracking and the very next day told it wouldn’t be upheld by Representative (and drilling rights attorney) Phil King (and if it was, he’d file a bill to make sure it wasn’t upheld). Christi Craddick declared she would still issue permits and it appeared there was something “Bushy” going on underneath it all.

On Monday, a joint investigation of the TCEQ and the Texas Railroad Commission by the Center for Public Integrity and Inside Climate News concluded that both agencies are protecting the oil and gas industry rather than the public whom they claim to serve.

They published the stories of two former TRC employees to back up their claims.

Two different sources and another media website offered the frustrating narrative of Fred Wright and Morris Kocurek, two oil and gas regulators working for the TRC. Throughout their careers, both Wright and Kocurek were promoted, praised, and given raises for their good work, and then summarily fired in 2013 for simply doing their job.

Wright’s boss, Charlie Teague insisted that wells be approved even though they were in violation of statewide rules. Kocurek reported that whenever he wrote up a violation, they would mysteriously disappear after the right phone calls were made.

Open records corroborate the stories of Mr. Wright and Mr. Kocurek, but it’s doubtful that anything will come of the investigation because the TRC is controlled by three elected commissioners who have accepted nearly $3 million combined in campaign contributions from the industry during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Now it appears the tentacles of the Texas Railroad Commission are reaching out to strong arm Texas municipalities in the form of higher natural gas prices by changing the rules for any city’s participation in gas utility rate cases. This action was taken in spite of the efforts of the Texas Legislature.

The Texas Railroad Commission, in collusion with the energy barons, successfully circumvented the actions Texas Legislature to accomplish the will of its benefactor. Worst of all, it's been accomplished openly and shamelessly.

Historically, cities’ participation in rate setting has prevented some outrageous increases by investor-owned utility companies. City government has a duty to protect its citizenry, but one investor-owned utility, Center Point Energy Entex of Houston, has repeatedly attempted to meddle in Texas Legislative affairs, pushing legislation that effectively excommunicates cities from the process.

As a result of the TRC ruling, cities would be forced to accept the rate hikes upfront and then litigate them in the future at the city’s expense after the rate hike takes effect.

That’s a lot of money and bureaucracy that would force city governments to think long and hard before embarking on that process, while, in the mean time, the community is forced to pay outrageous and unjustified rate increases.

One fact to note about CenterPoint: It’s intriguing that in December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized CenterPoint Energy for spending $2.65 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008-2010, instead getting $284 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $1.9 billion, and having an executive pay between $12 and $13 million for its top 5 executives.

Isn’t that cute?

Now it gets close to home.

Mayor Glen Robertson and Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Gerlt testified before the Texas Railroad Commission on Tuesday to oppose the rule changes, but it was a lot like facing Goliath with no slingshot. Funny, how the TRC and all their political relatives are the “small government-local control” folks, except when it comes to money to feed their donor buddies, then all bets are off.

You may read the TRC’s detailed brief and justification of their ruling on Tuesday’s hearing here: http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/media/25618/adopt-new-1-86and1-87-rate-cases-and-discovery-sig-120914.pdf .

Warning: It’s 36 pages and guaranteed to induce slumber.

The budget, education, roads, and more permissive gun laws…this is just one more thing Texas needs to worry about in 2015.

Feeling any voter’s remorse yet?

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Carol Morgan is a career/college counselor, writer, speaker, former Democratic candidate for the Texas House and the award-winning author of Of Tapestry, Time and Tears, a historical fiction about the 1947 Partition of India. Email Carol at [e-mail] , follow her on Twitter and on Facebook or visit her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org

http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-12-10/energy-money-behind-texas-railroad-commission-speaks#.VIkzIcnuPoE

Permission granted to post Carol's blog in its entirety.

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