DALLAS – James Coleman, an energy law professor, wants the Texas Railroad Commission to step up on its role as the state’s regulatory agency for oil and gas production.
Writing in an opinion piece for The Dallas Morning News, Coleman – who teaches at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in Dallas – said that while the current oil and gas boom in Texas isn’t bad, the commission should take steps to slow production.
Coleman said the Railroad Commission “may need to slow production slightly” both for the sake of keeping our natural resources from being depleted and for the sake of the oil industry itself.
Current production rates are leaving some producers without anyone to buy the natural gas, he said. Instead, since there is nowhere to go with it, the natural gas is still being burned off during extraction of crude oil.
Coleman cited a statistic by the U.S. Energy Commission showing that the U.S. is currently “flaring” more natural gas than ever before.
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