From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: When "We" Doesn't Include You

Here's a look at the close relationships that can develop between regulatory agencies and the industries they seek to regulate.

In this case it is the Texas Railroad Commission and the oil and gas industry.

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What happens when an elected official says “we” is that we think they’re talking about us — the people who elected them. Sometimes, that’s right. In fact, it’s right most of the time.

Not at the Texas Railroad Commission. It’s a three-person state commission elected by Texas voters and seemingly owned and operated by the oil and gas industry it regulates. Go hear one of their speeches at an industry conference sometime and listen for this: Do they call it “your industry” when talking to oil and gas people, or do they call it “our industry.” A recent sampling suggests the latter.

The latest chapter in the remarkably consistent history of the Railroad Commission is about a letter from Chairman David Porter to the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC is suffering from a case of regulatory constipation, as reported by The Texas Tribune’s Jim Malewitz, that is blocking some oil and gas companies from getting their hands on some wireless frequencies that would help them monitor their pipelines.

The companies want the FCC to free the frequencies, which are licensed to an unrelated outfit that has encountered bankruptcy and other legal challenges. One of them wrote a letter and got Porter to put it on Railroad Commission of Texas letterhead and sign it himself. This is all documented in emails, which are surely the greatest thing ever invented for lawyers and others who want to piece a story together after the fact.

Porter’s chief of staff, Caleb Troxclair, traded messages last month with Justin Stegall, a Houston intermediary for Enbridge, one of the companies hoping to get its hands on those wireless frequencies. The company’s Washington, D.C., lawyers drafted a letter that he forwarded to Porter’s office with some suggestions about adding some language of their own.

Troxclair wrote back a couple of days later, saying Porter had agreed to send it. Two days later, he sent along a version on state letterhead that was added to the FCC’s files by the lawyers in Washington.
None of this cost taxpayers much money. There was a little staff time involved, but it’s not like anyone on the state payroll had to write his or her own letter or anything.