Texas regulators go easy on the gas fines
In 2021, two-thirds of Texans lost their power in a deadly winter storm, largely because natural gas lines and infrastructure froze.
But new rules targeting poorly weatherized lines have so far resulted in only $30,500 in fines against gas companies — all for paperwork issues, Shelby Webb reports. Her investigation found that the Texas Railroad Commission — which despite its name oversees the state’s vast oil and gas network — issued weatherization citations for just 3 percent of the state’s “critical” natural gas facilities last year.
That’s raising concerns that the natural-gas-reliant state won’t be prepared for its next big freeze.
Railroad Commission spokesperson RJ DeSilva noted that some fines are at the discretion of the state attorney general.
Current rules and inspections are working, he said, pointing out that there was “more than enough gas” to keep the electricity on during two storms this past winter. (Both were less intense than the brutal cold snap of 2021.)
But the record of the elected Railroad Commission stands in stark contrast with the appointed Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees the state’s utilities and implements rules governing its electric system.
The PUC quickly adopted and began enforcing new weatherization rules for power plants after the winter disaster.
In the past two years, it has imposed a total of $900,000 in administrative penalties on six generators, four of which were also ordered to invest $1.2 million into their operations. Another pending case could impose a seven-figure bill on one power company.
Why the difference? Independent observers say the divergent levels of scrutiny for utilities and gas companies is largely because of Texas leaders’ lingering skepticism of renewable energy.
Politicians and Texas regulators publicly blame electricity producers but “with the subtext that [they] rely too much on wind and solar,” said Hugh Daigle, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
“There’s a significant political statement in that,” he said, “but then you have a lot of these analyses and white papers that show the natural gas supply caused a significant amount of the disruptions.”
Also worth noting: The Railroad Commission’s three elected leaders — all Republicans — have each received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from people and companies tied to Texas’ fossil fuel industry, as POLITICO has reported. They also own stock in oil- and gas-related companies, among other business and personal ties to the industry.