Pipeline Company Ghost-Wrote Texas Regulator's Letter

Last month, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman David Porter seemed keenly interested in an arcane dispute before the Federal Communications Commission.

“It was recently brought to our attention that a few oil and gas pipeline companies operating in Texas have been trying for more than four years to acquire frequencies from Maritime Communications/Land Mobile”— a bankrupt company being investigated for alleged misconduct while bidding on its licenses, a letter with Porter’s signature told federal regulators. “Unfortunately, the Commission’s processing of their applications apparently has been delayed by an ongoing hearing.”

The pro-industry letter took no position on Maritime’s legal troubles or the FCC's probe of the telecommunications company, which had stalled efforts by several oil and gas companies to tap wireless frequencies used to remotely monitor pipelines.

But the words contained in the letter weren’t really Porter’s, or those of anyone at his agency, which regulates oil and gas production, pipeline safety, mining and natural gas utilities. Lawyers for Enbridge — one of the pipeline companies stuck in the bureaucratic mud — drafted the letter some 1,500 miles away from Austin, according to a series of emails obtained by The Texas Tribune that illustrate the close ties between Porter and the industries he oversees.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/pipeline-company-ghostwrote-texas-regulators-lette/