Texas Railroad Commissioner criticizes loophole in Russian sanctions

A Texas Railroad Commissioner is asking the Obama administration about what he describes as an error in its sanctions against a Russian oil and gas cartel stemming from the Ukranian crisis.

Commissioner David Porter sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Monday asking that a “sanction loophole” be closed that is allowing a subsidiary of Gazprombank, the financial arm of the massive Russian gas firm, to lobby in Congress against the imposed sanctions.

Last week it was revealed by the Center for Public Integrity that Gasprombank GPB has hired former U.S. senators Trent Lott and John Breaux, as their main lobbyists working at the Squire Patton Boggs lobbying firm on “banking laws and regulations including applicable sanctions.”

“I am greatly concerned that a blacklisted, government owned, Russian bank is able to continue to campaign to weaken the American oil and gas industry and to hire two former United States Senators to exert pressure on American policymakers,” Porter wrote in his letter.

Gazprom Bank is currently under U.S. sanctions as a result of Russia’s role in the downing of Malaysia Flight 17, which resulted in the death of 253 passengers and crew members. Russia has been accused of providing the pro-Russia separatists with the missile they used to shoot down the plane, something the Russian government has denied.

Attempts to reach representatives of Gazprom were not immediately successful. A spokesman in Washington, D.C., for Squire Patton Boggs, the lobbying firm that hired Lott and Breaux, said they would have no comment on Porter’s letter.

But besides hiring Lott, a Republican from Mississippi, and Breaux, a Democrat from Louisiana, Porter said Gazprom has hired several other international public relations and lobbying firms since 2006 whose strategy is to criticize hydraulic fracturing. One prime example is the movie Gasland, which Porter described as an “incredibly deceitful film” that has led to bans in many European countries. The commissioner said they have now set their sites on the United States.

Because Texas is responsible for almost one-third of all marketed natural gas produced in America — the United States provides about 328 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas — Porter writes, “you can understand my concerns about recent reports revealing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s funding efforts to damage the U.S. natural gas industry in order to increase the global market share of his state-run company, Gazprom.”

This story was originally published September 8, 2014 at 8:51 PM with the headline "Texas Railroad Commissioner criticizes loophole in Russian sanctions."