Texas RR Commissioner tells Waxman Dont mess with Texas wells
By Jim Magill Platts Gas Daily
A Texas state regulator has warned the powerful chairman of a Congressional Committee to back off from his support of a proposed law that she claims would encroach on the states sovereign ability to regulate gas & oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. In a July 23rd letter to Henry Waxman chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones decried the ...
devastating effects to states that would ensue from the passage of
HR 5626 the Blowout Prevention Act of 2010.
The legislation which was reported out of the House Energy & Commerce Committee on July 15 has been consolidated into a comprehensive bill regulating energy production the Consolidated Land Energy and Aquatic Resources Act.
That bill written largely in response to the blowout and subsequent oil spill at the BP Macondo deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico was set to be debated on the House floor just prior to House
adjournment for August Recess" last Friday.
This bill and others similar to it is being rushed through Congress with no state input on the drafting of the legislation. We uncovered mistakes arising from inexperience in the bill Jones said in a statement.
Jones told Platts that although the portion of the bill requiring federal regulation of onshore wells has since been taken out of the legislation the portion calling for federal oversight of wells in the states offshore waters remains in the bill.
That is not good enough for me and its very very bad for Texas Jones said.
Thank you for the small favor of taking the onshore off. You say you just want to take a little of my jurisdiction and I say No uh-uh.
She pointed out that Texas and Florida are the only two Gulf states whose offshore boundaries extend to 3 leagues beyond the high tide mark.
That was our boundary as a republic thanks to Sam Houston said Jones.
We went into the Union maintaining that jurisdiction and if Henry Waxman and (US Representative) Ed Markey think they are going to take this away
they have another thing coming. They havent met me Jones said.
Dont just remember the Alamo: remember Tidelands oil case she said.
Under HR 5626 the federal government would usurp state authority over oil and gas exploration and production and place it under an unknown federal regulatory regime administered by a federal official who is unidentified Jones said
Its hard to believe that the federal government could make us concur with their regulatory scheme she said.
Why dont we let a coalition of the producing states oversee the federal government? They have the most experience in oil and gas regulation.
The Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission has likewise issued a recent statement calling on federal lawmakers to remove those passages in the bill that impinged on the sovereignty of the states.
Congress should put in place thoughtful regulatory processes rather than engage in knee-jerk reactions to the current disaster in the Gulf the commission said.
A spokesman for
House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman 
Henry Waxman did not immediately return a call for comment.
Jones was elected to the Texas Legislature in 2000 and then
appointed to the Texas Railroad Commission in 2005 by Governor Perry. Her commentaries have been published in the Wall Street Journal the Washington Post and other major newspapers.
