Christi Craddick earns tens of thousands of dollars from oil company stocks, has taken industry-paid flights and threw a campaign event hosted by one of Texas’ biggest petroleum producers.She’s also the state’s top oil and gas regulator, heading an agency that could pose a huge roadblock to one of President Joe Biden’s key climate policies.
As chair of the elected Texas Railroad Commission, Craddick oversees fossil fuel companies that provide a large chunk of the United States’ greenhouse gas pollution, including the potent gas methane. The agency’s three Republican commissioners oppose a Biden administration push to tighten oversight of methane releases, a rule that Craddick has called an “attack on the industry that provides so much to our state.”
The commissioners — Craddick, Wayne Christian and James Wright — are financially enmeshed with the same industry, with connections that include campaign contributions, business income and ownership of company stock, according to state disclosure records reviewed by POLITICO.
