What Does the Texas Railroad Commission Do?

A regulator with the wrong name

The Railroad Commission of Texas was created in 1891, during a wave of Populist resentment of railroad companies, to regulate railroads¹². Its authority grew over the following decades: a 1917 law declared oil pipelines "common carriers" under its jurisdiction, and a 1919 law gave it authority to regulate oil and gas production itself².

In 2005, the commission's remaining rail function, rail safety regulation, was transferred to the Texas Department of Transportation. Since then, the Railroad Commission has had no railroad-related functions at all, even though it kept its original name². University of Texas polling cited by the group Commission Shift found that only 42 percent of voters could identify the Railroad Commission as the agency that regulates oil and gas⁷.

What it actually regulates

Today the commission regulates oil and gas production, natural gas utilities, pipelines, liquefied petroleum gas and compressed natural gas, and the surface mining of coal, lignite, and uranium in Texas².

Three commissioners, staggered six-year terms

The commission has three elected members. Since 1894, they have served six-year, overlapping terms². That means in a normal general election, Texas voters choose one of the three seats. A vacancy can occasionally put a second, unexpired-term seat on the same ballot.

The other two current commissioners, whose seats are not on the 2026 ballot, are Chair Christi Craddick and Wayne Christian³.

Its role in the 2021 winter storm

Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 knocked out power to millions of Texans and contributed to hundreds of deaths⁴. A federal review by FERC and NERC found that freezing equipment at power plants was the largest cause of generating unit failures, and fuel supply problems were the second largest. Natural gas production fell sharply as wellheads and other gas facilities froze or lost power⁸.

In response, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 3 in 2021, and in August 2022 the Railroad Commission adopted a weatherization rule for natural gas facilities, known as Statewide Rule 3.66. The rule requires gas facilities that are on the state's electricity supply chain map and designated as critical to weatherize so they can keep operating during a weather emergency, and to correct known issues that caused earlier weather-related stoppages⁵.

Who is on the November 3, 2026 ballot

One Railroad Commission seat, currently held by Jim Wright, is on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot. Wright lost the Republican primary runoff to Bo French³⁶.

• Bo French (Republican): former chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party, with a background in private equity and oil⁶
• Jon Rosenthal (Democrat): has worked in the oil and gas industry and represents a Houston district in the Texas House⁶
• Arthur DiBianca (Libertarian): a longtime Libertarian activist who lives in Austin⁶