WASHINGTON, D.C. – Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick today highlighted Texas’ energy agency’s emergency response policies and actions during recent flooding in Texas at the 126^th meeting of the National Petroleum Council (NPC) in Washington D.C. At today’s meeting, council members discussed implementing the NPC’s 2014 report Enhancing Emergency Preparedness for Natural Disasters.

“In the event of a natural disaster-related emergency, the Railroad Commission has a standing State Emergency Operations Center (SOC) response team that works alongside the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM),” Craddick said. “The Commission’s SOC team serves in a support capacity for first responders, and as necessary, assists incident command with data, information and technical expertise. Our SOC team was most recently deployed during the state’s historic flooding in the spring of this year.

“In addition to emergency preparedness and response procedures, our agency maintains a robust inspection schedule, inspecting close to 135,000 oil and gas leases and other related facilities each year,” Craddick said. “A vigorous inspection process allows the Commission to do everything it can within our regulatory framework to minimize the impact a disaster may have on infrastructure related to energy development within the state.”

The NPC is a federal advisory committee to the Secretary of Energy. From 1946 until the implementation of the U.S. Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, the NPC served as an advisory body to the Secretary of the Interior. The sole purpose of the Council is to advise, inform, and make recommendations to the Secretary of Energy, at his request, on matters pertaining to oil and natural gas or oil and gas industries.

A video archive of the NPC meeting will be available on the NPC website: www.npc.org. The NPC’s 2014 report Enhancing Emergency Preparedness for Natural Disasters is available here: http://www.npc.org/reports/2014-Emergency_Preparedness-lr.pdf