BY JERRIE WHITELEY

HERALD DEMOCRAT

In voice as big as Texas, Jeff Weems told local Democrats why he wants to be Railroad Commissioner Tuesday night.

Weems, a Democrat and a south Texas oil and gas attorney, said he wants to represent the public on the commission and he wants to interject some common sense into the regulation of oil and gas in the state.

"I am not an opponent of the oil and gas industry," Weems said, explaining that he worked in that industry for years as did his father and grandfathers.

However, he said, he does think there needs to be some changes in the way the industry is regulated and those changes need to begin at the Texas Railroad Commission. For starters, Weems said, they should change the name. It should be called "The Oil and Gas Commission."

Weems said that will take time, but one thing that could be done must faster is automating the commission. He said the Railroad Commission needs more inspectors so they can do a better job of inspecting oil wells and drilling operations. Currently, each inspector, he said, has something like 4,500 cases he has to work. He said he isn't afraid to fight legislators for those needed inspectors, but he knows the changes won't come without cuts at the Railroad Commission.

He said the needed funds to hire more inspectors could be found by reducing the number of office workers at the Commission. He explained that a lot of an inspector's job right now has to do with filing paper work that then gets copied and mailed and moved around desks at the commission. If that process could be automated, some of those jobs could be switched to inspectors' positions.

Weems also said he wants the commission to assume responsibility for monitoring air emissions from well sites. He disagrees, he said, with the commission's position that air quality monitoring is the responsibility of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, an agency he said he has little faith can do that job.

He also said he knows that a good leader must lead by example, so he will start cutting jobs with his staff if he is elected. He said a Railroad Commissioner normally has four staff members and he will cut his staff to two people.

Moreover, he said, he will be a full-time commissioner and won't use the post as a jumping off spot for a higher office.

"I have already signed a letter of resignation," Weems said. He said he will give that letter to a Republican official. That official will be told to give that letter to the governor if Weems ever runs for another office.

"If you support me and put me in office, I will be the hardest working railroad commissioner you have seen in Texas in the last 50 years," he said.

In fact, he said, all he wants to be is railroad commissioner and he wants to be there for decades so he can build up the kind of knowledge and experience that the state needs to lead in the regulation of the state's natural resources.

One of those most precious resources, he said, is water. He told those gathered that the water used in drilling wells needs to be recycled rather than simply lost. He said the recycled water won't be potable, but it could certainly be used again in the drilling process.