Texas Railroad Commission

The notion that the state of Texas could help oil producers by limiting production at a time when the market is glutted has a real history in Texas, but an iffy future.

Texas regulators rejected a rare challenge to gas flaring in the state after an oil company argued that a flaring ban would force it to shut in wells, damaging the reservoir and reducing future oil production.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled late in April that the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas regulator, does not have exclusive jurisdiction over environmental contamination cases, which can be settled in court.