Three elected officials lead the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulates oil and gas fields, pipelines, utilities and mining operations.
Oil money flows into their campaigns, but the largest oil companies weren’t the largest donors. Lesser-known oil companies and some outside the industry have contributed more over time, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis.
To identify companies linked to donations during the review period (July 2000 through December 2025) we looked at contributions they made directly as well as those made by their employees and executives. The list may not be complete, which is why we used the terminology “at least.”
The donors and their interests brfore the RRC:
-Midland Energy.
-Ryan LLC.
-Energy Transfer.
-NGL Energy Partners.
-Double Eagle.
-Perry Homes.
-Hunt Consolidated.
-Hilcorp.
-Williams Brothers Construction.
From ChatGPT: Describe the regulatory decisions made by the Texas Railroad Commission since 2000.
- 1) Shale-era drilling & completion controls (well integrity + fracking transparency)
- 2) Produced-water disposal, induced seismicity, and injection oversight
- 3) Gas flaring: Rule 32 permitting and scrutiny
- 4) Pipeline safety modernization (especially late-2010s into 2020)
- 5) Gas system reliability after Winter Storm Uri (2021–2022)
- 6) Environmental protection: oilfield waste rules overhaul (effective July 1, 2025)
- 7) Plugging, cleanup, and “orphan well” scale-up (2020s, accelerating recently)
- 8) Carbon capture & storage: Class VI primacy (major 2025 decision)
