AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report) The latest information were seeing says that without the Oil & Gas recovery there would not be any recovery in Texas.
And there would not be any recovery in the nation were it not for the oil & gas recovery in Texas says House Energy Resources Committee Chairman Jim Keffer (R-HD 60.)
Theres not another industry like the oil & gas industry where it raises all boats Keffer tells Insiders Jim Cardle.
Representative Keffer who chaired the powerful Ways & Means Committee a decade ago during the last School Finance Special Session debates knows what hes talking about … and whats driving Texas politically prior to next weeks November 4th Election.
We are blessed as a state economically and we are going to be over the Comptrollers Budget Estimate by around $4-$6 billion dollars depending on how it all plays out for the State Budget said Keffer. All these oil & gas formations that are so prolific right now ... the Oil & Gas Industry has always known they were there its just that they didnt have the technology to extract the oil or the gas. Now they do and I think theyre surprised! They cant believe what has happened with the new technology that is out there Keffer tells Cardle. These are often small independent Texas companies that have stuck their necks out ... and now the neat thing about it too is that in some of the older fields such as the Ranger Oil Field out near Eastland Texas where I live thats been around since World War I now they are going to be able to go back into these old fields thatre not producing near what they used to and with new technology industry experts say theres maybe up to 75 still out there still down there (in the ground.) Now the technology is here to extract it which is going to be of great benefit to not only
Texas but to their local economies as well Keffer said.
We have been hydro-fracturing in Texas for about 50 years. The idea is not new but the technology is now light-years better than its ever been. So as far as the oil & gas industry knowing how to do this and keep water tables free of effluent there should not be a concern.
Theres never been a single case reported and substantiated that there has been pollution in a water table because of fracking. We should all be proud of the industry and the Railroad Commission because they did this without legislative mandates ... they passed a Rule 13 which brings the Oil & Gas Industry into the 21st century and updates all the down-hole requirements for tubing casing well-bore integrity and cementing practices said Keffer.
So this idea thats somehow out there ... that thinks Texas because of all of this success that were just some sort of lap-dog for the industry thats not watching out for our state -- in fact Texas was the first state back in 2011 to pass and implement a Disclosure Bill to make sure the industry was disclosing what they were using down-hole to perform all these processes Keffer said.
And another thing is we have so many people moving into Texas now from other states where maybe there are concerns that oil & gas are the bad guy. Maybe theyve had problems elsewhere I dont know.
But here in Texas what we have to do is a better job of assuring the citizens that the industry is being regulated that we are looking over their shoulder ... that in fact they want us looking over their 
shoulder because nobody wants any mistakes or accidents.
The (Texas) Railroad Commission is good at doing what they do. Its one of the oldest agencies in our state and we just need to make sure we keep the industry robust for our economy but also make sure we take care of the safety of our citizens and take care about our environment the chairman of the Texas House Energy Resources Committee said.
