The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission met Thursday and discussed proposed changes for the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC). Among them no longer is the Sunset staff recommendation to change the commission’s name to reflect its role as a regulator of energy and not of railroads.

Sunset Commission members promptly adopted part of the first Sunset staff recommendation, to reauthorize the body for another dozen years. However, they removed the staff stipulation that the authorization should come “with a name that reflects the agency’s important functions.” Changing the name of the RRC is something that has come up numerous times in past Sunset reviews (see Daily GPI, Aug. 23). However, because of nostalgia or other reasons, the change has always been scrapped.

Other recommendations made in April were adopted by the commission.

The Sunset Commission is composed of five members from each of the state House and Senate as well as two “public” members.

Public member Allen West Thursday added the recommendation that the RRC be directed to incorporate the findings of the TexNet Seismic Monitoring Program, which is administered by the University of Texas at Austin’s, Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) (see Shale Daily, May 12), into its regulatory activities. RRC Commissioner Christi Craddick told Sunset Commission members that the agency is working closely with BEG on the effort.