Up next in 10
RR Commissioner LP candidates: 2014 State Convention
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Jun 5, 2025
Mark A. Miller markmiller4texas.org Jason Marshall Kute
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training and i just want to say i just
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want to make a quick announcement
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um mr dixon asked me to notify you i
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went and looked into the issue that we
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discussed
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during that training so for those of you
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that were keenly interested in becoming
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national delegates that is to say
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delegates to the elky national
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convention
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in columbus ohio this june the national
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delegate
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sign up list is at delegate registration
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so just look for a list with a bunch of
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blank spots and some names filled in
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it says national delegates at the top of
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it show your name out there
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if you want to be on the list okay with
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that we'll start
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our our debate festivities so once again
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my name is kurt hildebrand i'll be
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one of your co-moderators for this
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evening i'm the chairman of the hayes
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county
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libertarian party and i'm also running
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for state chair of the libertarian party
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of texas
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thanks for being here and i really
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appreciate the turnout tonight this is
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absolutely fantastic
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we're looking forward to monitoring this
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i am ed class i'm the current
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and duly elected chair of collin county
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and we're looking forward tonight so
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we're just going to jump in and get
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started so
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it's all yours
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all right so we're going to start the
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first thing i'd like to do is just
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explain for everyone's benefit what our
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debate format is going to be tonight
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so we're going to have we're going to
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have four debates
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tonight and one kind of special event
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the very first thing
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uh on our agenda is is not quite going
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to be a debate but
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we are going to have some candidates
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speed but our general debate format just
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for everyone's understanding is going to
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be a three-minute opening statement
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then we'll go into a question and answer
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we need questions from you the audience
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to make this uh this process work you
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can see up on the screen there
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that we have the telephone number where
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you can text your questions too
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to make it you know as simple and
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streamlined as you possibly can
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text your questions to that number uh if
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you want to say that you want to direct
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those questions to a particular
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race you know for example you know
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senator or ng or
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railroad commissioner or whatever you
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can include that in your message just so
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we know which race you're referring to
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or if it's just an open-ended question
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we'll take that we'll filter it at our
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discretion we'll ask those questions
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90 seconds for the answers for our
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debaters there
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depending on the situation we may offer
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a debate or a rebuttal 30 seconds for
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following our discretion
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and then we'll go into two minute
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closing statements so
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i just want to say that we're going to
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work our very best ed and i
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in conjunction here to ensure that each
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debater receives approximately equal
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speaking time
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we will we will ask innovators not to
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interrupt each other
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so during their speaking periods but
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again in our discussion we'll
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try to facilitate that back and forth
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that conversation and
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we would ask for no inappropriate
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behavior
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um so with that i'd like to introduce
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our first
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uh our first event and our first event
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as i'm going to call it is for railroad
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commissioner
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mr mark miller and mr jason hughes are
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running for
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railroad commissioner for the nomination
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but they have
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actually declined to have a formal
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debate
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for this race but they did want to have
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an opportunity both of them
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to address you tonight and so
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what we're going to do is i'll introduce
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both of those gentlemen
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and the way that we're going to do this
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is that when we introduce a candidate
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we'll ask them to come up to the stage
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throughout all of the debates that we
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have here and
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once those two gentlemen get on the
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stage then we'll give them each about
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three minutes
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for some remarks for you so mark miller
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dr mark miller is a native born and long
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time resident of texas
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working his entire career as a petroleum
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engineer is taught at the university of
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texas at austin
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established a worldwide consulting
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practice and is currently the ceo and
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cto of a small company that develops oil
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and gas related software
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our first registered as libertarian in
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1972
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wow so
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mr jason hughes became a libertarian
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back in college but he fell out of
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political activism for a little over a
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decade
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after he got married the bush years
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renewed his interest in politics leading
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up to his support for ron paul in the
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2012 election cycle
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his attendance at the rnc as part of the
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texas delegation
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convinced him that the reform of the
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republican party has a path to liberty
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was a hopeless cause
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and that the libertarian party was the
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only viable path to true reform
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this year he's running for the office
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railroad commissioner though he plans to
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step down in favor of mark miller
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and support his campaign so welcome
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jason q
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thank you very much for being here and
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so without further ado
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i will turn it over to mr mark miller
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for his three minute revives
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uh thank you i'd like to first thank my
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new best friend
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jason
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actually jason i had the opportunity to
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have several very lengthy discussions
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about issues facing the railroad
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commission and uh
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one of the things that we came to
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realize is we both pretty much felt the
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same
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we did have a chance to sit at a forum
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together up in
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fort worth recently and i have to tell
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you that
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i would have glad to have him be our
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candidate for a railroad commission
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i always feel compelled when i talk
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about my campaign for railroad
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commissioner to start out by
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making sure my audience knows that the
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railroad commission has
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absolutely nothing to do with railroads
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rather the railroad commission its
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primary responsibility is regulating the
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oil gas business
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in texas obviously very important to
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texas representing about 15
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of the state's economy uh it is arguably
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the most important regulatory agency in
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the entire united states
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whose heads are elected and not
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appointed
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it's a very important position i'd like
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to talk about the fact that us
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libertarians are very conflicted when it
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comes to regulations
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though we totally understand the need to
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keep government
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from interfering in our personal and our
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economic lives
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we also understand that there are other
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very powerful entities out there
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that can take away our liberties that
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can interfere with the use of our
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property
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and really us libertarians are in the
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best position to balance individual
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liberties
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while still continuing a system of free
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and
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prosperous enterprise my campaign
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focuses on
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three main themes the first is improving
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the confidence in the railroad
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commission it is far too important an
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agency to be obscure and misunderstood
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by
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texans that needs to change there was a
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sunset commission report
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for the last legislature that
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recommended some significant changes
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in refusal policies and campaign
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donations that i totally support
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and i would encourage you to read
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secondly
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is reform and modernization uh i believe
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every regulatory agency ought to have
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a sunset provision where periodically
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every regulation
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is reviewed for whether it's still valid
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or not and please don't even get me
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started
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about who they hire to modernize their
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i.t system
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and third is protection of service
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property rights the railroad commission
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has done a very good job over the years
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of taking care of conflicts between
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people that had economic interests but
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we're in an era with shales and other
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things that
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those economic interests are not shared
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by people who have surface rights
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the railroad commission has been slow to
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do that please and i would
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be pleased to have your vote for
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railroad commissioner thank you
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there's one one point about our format
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that i'd like to mention
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um but i will do so real quickly now for
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the benefit of our audience as well as
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our invaders
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so we will uh have a timekeeper and a
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moderator mr cluster and i will
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share that responsibility back and forth
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throughout the night and the timekeeper
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will hold up a yellow
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notice to the to the debaters when they
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reach 30 seconds of their time
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and then read when they reach 10 seconds
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of their time and they need to wrap it
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up so it's just a
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sort of that format so thank you again
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mr miller and mr
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hughes your
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i'd like to start off by saying
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talk a little bit about what sort of
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issues come up when it comes to you know
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rare commissions and things that it
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governs and it's not also some things
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that it doesn't cover
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the big debate that we were up in fort
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worth about was regarding the
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earthquakes and mark has done
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plenty of research on his own regarding
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that and
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just what a hairball at the wastewater
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injection levels can be
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um water is kind of an interesting
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entity in that it's
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both sheared and renewable resource you
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know if you and i
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use water at home and we return it to
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the
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company that furnishes up to that water
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and then that
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company is required to clean it if we go
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too far with our use of that water and
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it's too toxic for them to clean up we
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get into trouble
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um but the oil and gas industry they
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just
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sort of take that order out of the
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equation
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instead of renting it they sort of
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confiscate it
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and then it's out of the system so
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when we start talking about things like
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droughts and lakes that are down that
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went through their fasting it becomes a
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really
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sticky issue and you really need
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somebody that knows their stuff
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to be on top of that um
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let's see um i think mark hit upon that
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we do need a libertarian in this
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particular office because it is a very
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powerful office more
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power actually than the governorship the
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state has
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and so it's very high profile
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and also it's a good opportunity for us
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to shine because as mark pointed out
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regulation is not something that you're
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famous for supporting
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and so how we would act in a regular
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capacity is a
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very i think important showpiece for us
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the other thing that marcus hit upon
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is the need for part of unity and
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one of the reasons that we need to have
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that is that there are a number of
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issues
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with this that the regulatory capacity
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of the railroad industries does not
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encompass um
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a number of us talk about the fact that
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in order to really make some changes
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we're going to be able
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we're going to have the need to pierce
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that corporate fail we need to hold
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people accountable
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on a personal level you can run into
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problems where
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you know a small mom-and-pop industry is
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handling your ways for you they're very
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small they don't have a lot of money to
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throw around
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and so they're they go bankrupt and the
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people impacted by that
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don't have a lot of uh any place to turn
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i think i'm out of time but uh yes you
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are
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thank you for your statements both uh
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gentlemen and um you know i
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just want to say in closing um you know
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before you kind of release here from the
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stage there
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that um you know i just think that this
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is a
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this is just a phenomenal example of
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exactly what you
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you know you just talked about this idea
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part of unity and coming together
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um you know for what's best for
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the libertarian mission overall so i
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congratulate you both
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on your hands campaigns and i commend
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you both
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for working this out in such a gentlemen
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