Manipulating the international gas market
David Porter can be an easy man to miss. With a neat part to his hair and an understated, monotone speaking style, he resembles less a politician than an accountant — which is what he happens to be.
But there’s no missing the Texas railroad commissioner’s message. Over the last few months, Porter has made controversial statements on lax security along the U.S.-Mexico border and on Russia manipulating the international gas market, raising both his profile and that of the state’s top oil and gas agency.
In August, Porter, a Republican, wrote a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection questioning what steps it was taking to stop terrorists from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda from crossing the border into the United States. Citing an interview that a former CIA officer and security consultant gave on the radio program The Laura Ingraham Show, Porter said that the Mexican drug cartels were in “conversations.”
“Last year Yemeni terrorists attacked major oil pipelines as a tactic in their war against the West. … I shudder to think what these terrorists would do to the U.S. when they are willing to do this to their own country,” he wrote.
Throughout its more than 120-year history, the Texas Railroad Commission has largely set drilling rules and settled disputes between adjoining royalty owners over whose oil is whose.
In an interview, Porter, 58, said the agency has a duty to address all issues affecting the state’s oil and gas industry, whether in Midland or Moscow. As to the Islamic State allegation, he said he had been following media reports about the border and felt compelled to step in for the sake of Railroad Commission employees who inspect pipelines near the border.