Texas oil industry group supports hiring more state inspectors

The Texas Oil and Gas Association is strongly supporting a $12 million appropriation request to hire more workers to monitor and inspect wells and pipelines statewide as part of an effort to create a balanced approach to regulation that does not cripple the industry.

Association President Todd Staples said his group supports a Texas Railroad Commission budget request for the next biennium for money to hire about 100 employees. The commission, which regulates the energy industry, has been criticized for not doing enough to protect the public.

If such regulation is not handled appropriately, it could undermine the economic strength of the industry, which an internal study shows paid a record $15.7 billion in taxes and royalties in 2014, Staples said.

“Science-based and predictable oil and gas regulation will help keep Texas prosperous, with a safe environment and a healthy economy,” he said during a telephone conference Tuesday. “An unwieldy regulatory scheme can cripple the Texas economy.”

In November, voters in Denton approved the state’s first ban against hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method that allows oil and gas producers to tap into oil and gas reserves in urban settings. Denton residents said they pursued the ban because of ineffective regulation.

The industry group waited less than 24 hours to challenge that ban in court, and since then several bills have been filed in Austin to either block other bans from passage or limit the ability of cities to regulate oil and gas exploration.

The industry has told city leaders and state lawmakers that it wants regulatory certainty, not what Staples called a “patchwork scheme that thwarts activity.” Bans are not the way to go, he said.

“We want to clearly define what the cities’ roles are,” said Staples, who was a councilman in Palestine before serving as a state lawmaker and as Texas agricultural commissioner.

Cities clearly have a right to regulate noise and traffic and to enforce landscape requirements, but the actual oversight of the industry is the responsibility of the state, he said.

“There is a role for the city and the state to play and we [the industry] have a great track record of working with them,” Staples said.

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Texas oil industry group supports hiring more state inspectors."