Few Texans have as much experience and impact on the Texas oil and gas industry as Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian. 

Elected as the 50th railroad commissioner in November 2016, Christian has an extensive background in both business and public service. He considers himself a lifelong conservative businessman, which includes stints in the banking, real estate, and financial services business and the Texas House of Representatives. 

Prior to that, Christian had earned success in the music industry with his country/gospel band, the Mercy River Boys, who went on to be finalists for a Grammy Award in 1979 and would be later inducted into the Texas Gospel Hall of Fame. 

17 years later, Christian was elected for the first time to the Texas House in 1996 and is now a statewide elected official with regulatory oversight of the booming Texas oil and gas industries, including being appointed to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) by Governor Greg Abbott. 

On a national level, Christian was optimistic about the future of the industry. “With the new Trump administration getting started there’s going to be a lot of changes in energy, energy policies, and environmental policies,” Christian says. 

Known as an outspoken man, he did not hold back his opinion about the new direction of the country when it comes to energy policy. “No, it really is. Drill, baby, drill,” Christian says.

According to the Texas Oil & Gas Association, the oil and natural gas industry in Texas generated $719 billion of direct or indirect impact on the Texas economy in 2023, accounting for 34.5% of the total private sector GSP in Texas. That economic activity generated $27.3 billion in taxes and state royalties for Texas. 

“The greatest gift in the state of Texas is a lot of oil and gas underneath the ground,” Christian says. 

He is proud of the work of the Railroad Commission to help the industry flourish in Texas despite what he sees as impediments on the industry being imposed by the federal government.

 “We were the number one regulatory agency for oil and gas on planet Earth,” he says.“If you wanted something done, you didn’t have to go to Washington. You come to Texas for oil and gas.” 

He remarked on what he saw as a consistent battle between the industry in Texas and the desires of the previous administration in D.C.

“There’s positives and negatives going through the past four years of the Biden Administration, because of the cutbacks they did,” says Christian. “When they would cut the public lands back, it would shut down a lot of the entire United States.” 

In his vision, more oil and gas production should be the goal, leading to lower costs and lower inflation, driving prices down for all Texans. 

Regarding some of the policies of people with a different perspective than he has, such as the Green New Deal, that have an impact on the Texas oil and gas industry, Christian was not so charitable. “It’s a scam,” he says. 

“I’m old enough to have lived through a lot of these scams. We had the great Ice Age back in the 70s,” Christian says, referring to concerns over an increasingly warmer climate today. “When they talk about zero carbon, guess who is engaged in selling carbon credits right now? A gentleman named Al Gore says that his family sells carbon credits.” 

Christian argued that the oil and gas industry has made significant strides towards reducing pollution. He argued that the EPA data shows that while the industry in the U.S. has tripled the amount of machinery, the most harmful emissions have been cut by 85%. 

“We are the cleanest industrialized nation on planet Earth,” he says. 

Bringing it back to how the industry impacts the everyday Texan, Christian argued that oil and gas accounts for a huge portion of economic activity in the United States. 

“The economy out there, forget the government, the economy – 40% of the Texas economy is directly or indirectly affected by oil and gas,” Christian says. “What pays for your public schools, roads, everything like that? All of the government? Oil and gas. All the rainy day fund comes from oil and gas.” 

While large, multinational corporations often dominate the energy landscape, Christian pointed out that mom-and-pop operators and independent producers contribute significantly to the broader energy sector. 

“In the entire United States… 80% of production is by independents, not the big seven,” he says.

As an example of regulations that impact the independent producers, Christian criticized recent efforts by the EPA on methane emissions. “You pass a methane rule here and it shuts down over 10,000 local marginal wells,” he says.

And while Christian believes in the importance of the big operators, he suggested that they already have a significant voice with the legislature and that more attention needs to be paid to raising the voices of these smaller oil and gas operators. 

“The internationals, the big boys we’re talking about, are our friends,” says Christian. 

In order to bring that balance, Christian has been spearheading an initiative to establish an oil and gas caucus in Texas. “I think we need to work together 12 months a year for all the problems and to be equipped every time the legislature comes in.”