Railroad Commission skips over Sitton for top spot

When Christi Craddick nominated fellow railroad commissioner Wayne Christian to replace her as chairman this week, she was breaking with tradition: The chairmanship of the three-person commission, which regulates oil, gas and mining activity, typically goes to the member soonest to stand for re-election — and Ryan Sitton is due up in 2020.

The all-Republican, statewide elected board has long been sympathetic to the industries it regulates — and from whom they get most of their campaign cash. Conventional wisdom holds that the title of chairman gives an incumbent a little more heft heading into an election year.

But Craddick and Sitton have had a long-simmering beef, one that gets at the regulatory direction of the agency, that has broken now and then into public view.

On Wednesday, Sitton, outnumbered and perhaps wanting to save face, seconded Craddick’s nomination and joined in the unanimous 3-0 vote naming Christian as the chairman. The position generally is rotated every couple of years.

With no pay boost attached, the chairmanship is largely symbolic, chiefly entitling the chair to preside over hearings.

Sitton, who announced he is running for re-election on June 10, did not return a request for comment.

In a news release, following the vote, Craddick said: “I look forward to Chairman Christian’s leadership. His service to Texas and his appreciation of the industry makes him a great leader for this agency.”

Friction between Craddick and Sitton goes back at least to 2017. After the ouster of the agency’s executive director that fall following a private meeting with Craddick, Sitton accused Craddick of unilaterally forcing a change in leadership — at one point telling Craddick that "this isn't a dictatorship."

Sitton then took things farther, asking Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, also a Republican, to weigh in on whether Craddick violated open meeting laws or exceeded her authority with her handling of the situation. An elected commissioner of the state agency that regulates Texas' oil and gas industry lacks the authority to single-handedly terminate the agency's executive director — but whether that's what happened remains an open question, Paxton concluded.

Name change

Sitton also has differed with Craddick and Christian about whether the Railroad Commission should be renamed.

Once upon a time — at its founding more than a century ago — the state agency was charged with overseeing railway matters. But for decades the Railroad Commission's regulation of trains has ebbed; the agency fully transferred oversight of railroads to the Texas Department of Transportation in 2005.

Sitton has said the agency’s name should be changed — the Texas Energy Resources Commission is one that has been bandied about — in the interests of transparency and good governance.

But such a proposal has gotten little traction the last decade. Standing in the way of any change is state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, Christi Craddick’s father and an influential lawmaker who has served 50 years and was House speaker. Craddick represents the oil-rich Permian Basin, and the name change has become something of a pet issue for him. "The average Texan doesn't want the federal government to have more control of the industry in Texas," he told the American-Statesman in 2016, claiming a name change could open the way to federal takeover.

Christi Craddick last year told the Statesman "as regulator, I'd tell you that a name change for the commission is simply not our priority today."

"It's costly, and we should be directing any additional funding to items critical to our operations such as (information technology) improvements and staff salaries," she continued.

Pipeline sanction

Last year, Sitton and Craddick differed over whether a pipeline giant should be sanctioned for a leak in rural Fayette County and lax reporting of the incident to regulators. Craddick and Christian applauded the company’s work and criticized agency employees for pushing for a penalty; Sitton suggested to the Statesman that the approach "undermines public confidence in our agency. We should understand what happened, clean it up and get to the bottom of this."

Ultimately, penalties against the company were dismissed by a 2-1 margin, with Sitton on the losing end to Craddick and Christian.

Christian, a former East Texas lawmaker who will next stand for re-election in 2022, has battled against proposed federal environmental regulations and focused on promoting careers in the oil industry to Texas schoolchildren.

Last year, in an opinion article in the Texas Tribune, he said that "we don't know whether man-made greenhouse gases are impacting our climate in a harmful way."

“Real science,” he continued, “is never ‘settled.'"

That view on climate change is contrary to widely held conclusions by scientists, who say heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions are largely to blame for a warming planet.

Craddick and Sitton have said the degree to which humankind contributes to a changing climate remains an open question.

Hand shake

Jason Modglin, a Christi Craddick spokesman, parried a question about why Craddick had broken with tradition on the commission chairmanship.

“Chapter 81 of the Natural Resources Code says, ‘The Commission shall elect one commissioner as the chairman,’” Modglin wrote in an email. “It does not dictate a rotation or turns. Historically, the chairman has either been the person up for reelection or the person the commissioners feel will do the best job at the time.”

There is limited precedent for commissioners being passed over for chairmanship — usually a matter of politics or personality conflict — and twice Craddick has served as chairwoman during a legislative session, a nod to her experience as a lobbyist and working on the campaigns of her father.

The commission under Craddick's leadership successfully won more money from the Legislature this year to hire more oil and gas and pipeline safety inspectors and for a well-plugging and drilling site remediation program. Also, Craddick has pushed forward major information technology upgrades, including a searchable database of inspection and violation information by well, lease, county, and operator.

“It’s a big deal for us with regard to transparency, convenience, data accessibility and modernization of our IT capabilities,” agency spokesman Rich Parsons said.

Christian told the Statesman as chairman he wants "to ensure our agency maintains a fair and predictable regulatory environment that protects the public and the environment from bad actors, while ensuring my constituents are able to receive the most benefit from our natural resources in terms of economic growth, jobs, and cheap, reliable access to energy."

"I look forward to continue working to modernize our IT systems and processes to increase efficiency and reduce costs to both the agency and the industry we regulate," he said.

The ascendancy of Christian to the chairmanship could calm turbulent waters among the sometimes-clashing commissioners.

After Craddick and Christian swapped chairs on the agency dais following the vote on Wednesday, Christian and Sitton shook hands. Christian said Sitton, an engineer, “has helped me to understand many issues and his expertise is invaluable on this commission. Because he understands things much more than a former legislator and politician and finance guy from deep East Texas. I appreciate your knowledge and listen for your remarks and respect your opinions on the different issues.”

“Thank you,” Sitton said.