POLITICS
Texas poised to reauthorize energy regulator without reform
The Texas oil and gas industry got most of what it wanted in the bill that reauthorizes the state's top energy regulator.
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Mike is an EnergyWire reporter based in Dallas-Fort Worth who joined the company in 2013. He has written extensively about energy regulation and the impact of oil and gas development on communities, including hydraulic fracturing, air and water pollution, traffic problems and landowner disputes. Other areas of expertise include state politics, business news, pipeline safety and water policy. Before joining E&E he was an energy reporter for Bloomberg News and wrote for several newspapers in Texas including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Texas oil and gas industry got most of what it wanted in the bill that reauthorizes the state's top energy regulator.
Amid a political backlash over a deadly explosion linked to a natural gas well, Colorado's attorney general will appeal a court decision that could force the state to write tighter regulations on the energy industry.
The first lawsuit has been filed in connection with an explosion that destroyed a home in Firestone, Colo., last month, and more legal action could be coming.
A veteran Texas lawmaker has been indicted and faces decades in prison on charges that he defrauded investors in an oil field service company.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Colorado energy regulators will take a harder line against companies that improperly abandon pipelines in the wake of a fatal explosion that was linked to an oil field pipeline, and other states are watching the case closely.