Who’s Running in the Big Money Election for the Texas Railroad Commission?

The list of campaign contributions to incumbent oil and gas regulator Christi Craddick reads like a who’s who of Texas fossil fuel billionaires. There’s West Texas oilman Tim Dunn, Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren and recently deceased Endeavor Energy founder Autry Stephens.

All told, the Midland Republican running for her third term on the Railroad Commission has raked in more than $10 million since 2019, according to reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. In comparison, Craddick’s three opponents for the seat have raised less than $30,000 total. Commissioners can accept campaign contributions throughout their six-year terms in office, unlike state legislative and judicial candidates, who are limited to defined election periods. 

Craddick’s opponents are Democrat Katherine Culbert, a process safety engineer in Houston, Libertarian Hawk Dunlap, a well control specialist in the Permian Basin, and Eddie Espinoza of the Green Party. Early voting began Monday.

The results of the race will shape environmental and climate outcomes in Texas for years to come. The three elected commissioners manage funds to plug orphan wells and vote on permits to flare methane and drill injection wells, decisions that can make or cost oil and gas companies money. The sitting commissioners, Craddick, Wayne Christian and Jim Wright, have staunchly opposed environmental and climate policy under the Biden-Harris administration.

Texas Republicans have not lost a statewide race since 1994. But that hasn’t stopped Texas oil and gas executives from opening their pursestrings. Craddick out-fundraised all previous Railroad Commission campaigns, according to the campaign finance accountability group Open Secrets. 

“We call Texas the Wild West of money in politics because there are no limits for what you can give candidates for legislative or executive branch offices,” said Andrew Wheat of Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based watchdog group. “The sky’s the limit. For the oil and gas industry, those limits run even higher.”

The Craddick campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Political Contributions From Industry Raise Concerns

The Railroad Commission of Texas, founded in 1891, is the oldest regulatory agency in the state. Oil industry regulation was added to its mandate in the early 20th century. The agency no longer regulates railroads and now has oversight over oil and gas drilling, gas utilities, pipeline safety, surface coal and uranium mining. Geothermal energy and carbon capture and sequestration are other growing sectors in the agency’s purview.

The agency’s stated mission is to serve Texas through the “stewardship of natural resources and the environment, our concern for personal and community safety, and our support of enhanced development and economic vitality for the benefit of Texans.”

Texas, which leads the nation in oil production, is one of the few states to elect its oil and gas regulators. The other states in the top five—New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Alaska—all appoint their oil and gas commissioners.

Craddick grew up in Midland, in the heart of the Permian Basin, and studied law at the University of Texas, Austin. Her father, Tom Craddick, has been a state representative for more than 50 years and prides himself on supporting the oil and gas industry. A 2023 Texas Monthly investigation found that the Craddicks earned about $10 million in the previous year from oil and gas rights. Tom and Christi hold many of these stakes jointly.

“Texas oil was practically her mother’s milk,” said Wheat, who co-authored a 2021 report with Commission Shift, a nonpartisan organization focused on reforming the Railroad Commission. 

The report documented instances in which Craddick and other commissioners voted on matters that impact the activities of companies they hold stakes in or from which they receive large campaign contributions. The authors argue that the agency should clarify rules for when commissioners must disclose business relationships or recuse themselves from deliberations.

“The amount of money that is coming from the Tim Dunns and the Sheffields and the Kelcy Warrens of Texas is really quite phenomenal. The impact it has on the scales of elections in Texas is stunning,” Wheat said. “When you take it to their influence on the Railroad Commission, it raises further concerns because this is the office that ostensibly is supposed to regulate their industry.”

Craddick’s record fundraising in the 2024 campaign cycle is no different. Her single largest campaign contribution—$273,975—came from NGL Texas Political Action Committee (PAC) in September. NGL is a Tulsa-based midstream oil and gas company that operates pipelines and waste disposal sites in Texas. The NGL PAC; NGL’s subsidiary, NGL Water Solutions Permian; and NGL executives contributed a total of $773,975 to Craddick’s campaign between 2019 and September 2024, according to campaign filings.

Most recently, at the September Railroad Commission open meeting, the commissioners voted on an enforcement order against NGL Water Solutions Permian. The Railroad Commission has issued 245 notices of violation to NGL and its subsidiaries at their operations around Texas since 2019. Violations include unpermitted disposal of oil and gas wastes and having inactive unplugged wells.

NGL did not respond to a request for comment.

Some of Craddick’s other top donors include Syed Javaid Anwar, the CEO of Midland Energy; former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield; Cody Campbell, owner of oil and gas company Double Eagle Development, and Trevor Rees-Jones, CEO of Chief Oil & Gas.

As Craddick accepts millions in contributions from the oil and gas industry, she has made fighting “anti-oil protesters” and “overregulation” in the Biden administration centerpieces of her campaign platform. 

A video published on her social media accounts shows images of environmental protesters splashing soup on the Mona Lisa with ominous music playing in the background. As the music rises, bold text fills the screen: “They won’t stop. Until we stand up. Vote for American Energy. Vote for Christi Craddick”

She described her approach to regulating in an interview with The Crude Life podcast.

“We try not to overregulate. We try to work with companies and industry,” she said. “But we also make sure you follow our rules and regulations.”

Craddick said that under Biden, the Railroad Commission has relied on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to bring lawsuits against new environmental and climate policies. 

Craddick has also criticized the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which she calls the Green New Deal. Even so, the Railroad Commission is accessing funds from the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, both passed under Biden, to plug orphan wells. Texas has more than 8,000 orphan wells, which release harmful air toxics and greenhouse gases and can contaminate soil and groundwater. New wells are continually added to the list.

Appearing on the Crude Truth podcast in February 2024, Craddick said Texas would take the federal money despite her criticisms of the law.

“The Green New Deal is bad,” she said. “But this, we decided we would access dollars. It’s your tax dollars anyway so we might as well use it.”

Opponents Call for Reform

Commission Shift hosted the only Railroad Commission candidate forum, held on Oct. 16 at the University of Texas, Austin. All four candidates were invited to participate and only Craddick did not attend.

Despite Craddick’s massive fundraising haul, the race has been relatively low profile. The Railroad Commission is the only statewide office, other than judicial roles, on the ballot this year. In other election cycles, the commissioners’ race coincides with more high-profile contests, including attorney general and governor. 

Meanwhile, the state’s Democratic Party has focused its resources on U.S. Rep. Colin Allred’s campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. 

Advocates have called to change the Railroad Commission’s name, arguing that voters often do not understand the job of the commissioners, which is unrelated to railroads.

“It comes down to campaign finance reform. We need to fix this whole system,” said Democratic candidate Katherine Culbert in an interview. 

Culbert said she decided to run because working as a process safety engineer for oil and gas companies, she has seen the ways the Railroad Commission is “lax” in its regulations.

She has been vocal on pipeline safety since an Energy Transfer pipeline in La Porte, outside Houston, caught fire in September, killing one person. Culbert said that safety measures at the pipeline valve station were not sufficient. She pointed out that Warren, Energy Transfer’s CEO, is a large donor to Craddick.

Warren contributed $100,000 to Craddick’s campaign, according to filings. The Energy Transfer Partners PAC and other company executives and board members contributed an additional $161,215. Energy Transfer Partners did not respond to a request for comment.

“The Railroad Commission is not supposed to be advocating for or cheerleading for the industry,” she said. “They’re supposed to be regulating it.”

Candidate Hawk Dunlap originally ran in the Republican primary against Craddick before joining the Libertarian ticket. He has worked in the oil and gas industry for 30 years and now lives in Monahans. A frequent critic of the sitting commissioners, he’s involved in efforts to clean up legacy oil-industry pollution at Antina Ranch.

Dunlap has not accepted campaign donations—he said people should give to a food bank or an animal shelter instead—and has relied on TikTok and other social media to spread his reform message.

He is outspoken about the problems of wastewater injection in the Permian Basin. Injection wells regulated by the Railroad Commission have been linked to earthquakes and recent geysers and blowouts. He said the agency needs to do more to protect Texas groundwater.

During the candidate forum, he proposed a $1 per barrel tax on produced water injection and called for using those funds to plug wells. Billions of barrels of produced water are injected underground every year.

“We need to get away from using our groundwater,” he said. “I could plug a lot of wells with a billion dollars.”

Green Party candidate Eddie Espinoza is an Army veteran living in Hidalgo County. He was an elementary school teacher for 26 years. During the candidate forum, he touted that the Green Party is the only party calling for a ban on fracking. 

“Not only is global warming happening, global warming is accelerating,” he said in an interview. “One of the most important things we can do is end fossil fuel use as soon as possible.”

Dunlap said that the opposition candidates each have different backgrounds, skill sets and ideas to bring to the commission. 

“But the one thing that we have in common,” he said, “is that we think it’s time for Christi Craddick to go.”

That decision now lies with Texas voters.