Railroad Commission Chairman Smitherman Comments on Occidental Petroleum Relocating Headquarters to Texas

AUSTIN- Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman issued the following statement regarding Occidental Petroleum relocating their headquarters from Los Angeles, Calif. to Houston, Tx.

“I commend Occidental Petroleum for their wisdom in relocating their headquarters to the ‘headquarters’ of the nation’s top oil and gas producing state,” Chairman Smitherman said. “And as Texas’ largest oil producer, Occidental’ s move is further validation of the predictable, transparent and constructive leadership that our regulation at the Railroad Commission provides to all energy companies in Texas. This type of regulation at the Railroad Commission clearly helps generate Texas jobs and propels our state’s economy forward.”

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Chairman Barry Smitherman was appointed to the Railroad Commission of Texas in July 2011, and was elected Chairman in February 2012. In November 2012, Chairman Smitherman won a statewide election to the Commission with 74 percent of the vote, receiving more than 4.5 million votes. Chairman Smitherman currently serves as Texas’ representative on both the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and the Southern States Energy Board, and as Chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Gas Committee. He is on the Visiting Committee of the Bureau of Economic Geology with the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas School of Law Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law, and the Eanes Education Foundation Advisory Board.