The Texan Podcast - Railroad Commission Candidate Bo French at the Texas GOP 2026 State Convention

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French joined The Texan's Reporter Meridith Dyer at the Republican Party of Texas' 2026 state convention to discuss environmental regulations in the oil and gas industry, his relationships with the other members of the Railroad Commission, his experience as chair of the Tarrant County GOP, and more.Listen to more interviews from The Texan wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, follow us and leave a review.

Well, thank you so much for joining us at the Texan News. It's good to meet you. I followed this race, and I know that was kind of a nail biter in the last runoff. So how was that night for you? Well, it was really fun, actually, because I was at the Ken Paxton event in North Dallas, Plano. And hoping that I was going to know the result of my election, you know, about the same time that he did. But, you know, the difference is he won in a landslide. So he went on stage very early to give his speech.

And I got to sit around and have everyone in the room come up and ask me, do we know the results of your race yet? You know, P&P, and people were congratulating me. And I was like, no, every time a new ballot drop comes in, it's getting closer and closer. So, you know, we didn't know the result of my race until, I think, 1130. Oh, I know. I was following that one. And, but it was really fun. You know, I had my family there and a lot of friends.

And so it was a, it ultimately turned out to be a celebration. It was just later into the evening. I didn't get to bed until, I think, 3 o'clock that night. Okay, so you're going to, if you win, you're going to be joining a three panel commissioner group. And you mentioned an interview that you knew Christy Craddock your whole life for something. How do you know, how did you meet her? Oh, I mean, she and I grew up in Midland together. I've, you know, I've known her my entire life.

Yeah. Okay. We're at the same age, you know, same grade in school. That's such a small world. If you end up on the commission with her, that's such a small world. Yeah, like I've got a great relationship with her. So I'm looking forward to working with her. And I think a lot of Wayne Christian also.

and actually have seen him here at the convention and talk to him several times. So have a lot in common with both of those people. And I think we're going to work very well together. I was going to ask about the working relationship because you have been critical of what the commission is done. I know you mentioned that you kind of seem to put more on Jim Wright in his leadership. You specifically singled out the environmental regulations that have increased. So from those, which are the, like, what would be regulations that you think are appropriate? And what are the ones that you would want to throw out?

Yeah. So, I mean, honestly, that's what prompted me to run last year. So in July, the commission passed these new environmental regulations. And, you know, I come from the side of the industry, you know, the independent and, you know, smaller operator. And the environmental regulations, you know, all of my friends and associates in that part of the business were very upset by those regulations because they just massively increase the cost for them to do what they need to do. Which is not a good thing for our industry. It's going to harm our industry, but also it raises costs. on producing oil, which means higher prices at the pump. So it's not good for consumers either.

And I think that, you know, what happens a lot of times in these government agencies is you have the bureaucrats, you know, underneath who come up with all this stuff. And I think that, unfortunately, I think the ones that they that they pushed through last year are not good for the industry. So I'm going to look to reevaluate those and pose some new rules to change what they implemented. Just the things that you really target the smaller operators and increase the costs on them. Those are the things. So for someone that doesn't know that much about the industry, what would be like one example of this is an appropriate environmental regulation? And this is one that is not necessary. Yeah.

Well, there's a long list. But one example would be, you know, I mean, Texas is a huge state. And the requirements we have in West Texas to drill for oil in these, you know, deep and, you know, long lateral wells, you know, big, big fracking wells are very, different than some shallow, you know, vertical well in a different part of the state. But yet we have the same kind of one size fits all regulations for plugging and all the hoops they have to jump through and getting the permits to do everything is just, it's very burdensome and time consuming. You know, this is 2026.

We can do almost everything on our phone now. A lot of this should be able to happen a lot faster. That's one example. Another example would be they implemented this. They sort of mimicked New Mexico. and for the oil and gas operators who operate in both Texas and New Mexico, they'll tell you that New Mexico's regulatory framework is much more restrictive on what they can do because it's run by a bunch of leftist environmentalists.

And that's exactly part of what they try to implement here in Texas, kind of mimicking the pit rules that they have in New Mexico. And so those are the kind of things that we need to reevaluate and make sure that we're not harming the industry. You know, look, I'm in the industry and everyone I know in the industry, we're all stewards of the environment. I'm a rancher. You know, I have oil production on one of my ranches.

And so, you know, I think protecting the land is certainly an important component of what we do. And everyone I know in the business feels the same way. So it's not like I'm for no regulation or for doing things that are going to harm the environment. But we also have to ensure that what we are doing is protecting the business. Because this is the most important, the largest and most important industry in the state of Texas. You know, I think there's about half a million people in Texas, directly employed. by the oil and gas industry and another 1.5 million people employed by, you know, businesses that are related to that industry. So, you have two million jobs in Texas. It's a huge number.

And so I just want to make sure we keep our economy as strong as we can. We lower the cost to do business in Texas. And I think if we do those things, we will make a stronger industry and a better economy for Texas. Okay. So another thing, Islam in Texas. I'm sure you're getting questions about this all the time. What do you say to people that say this doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of railroad commissioner? That maybe it's something you could have talked about as Tarrant County GOP chair, but moving forward, what would you say in response to that? Well, I would say what every voter I talked to said, and that is we want all of our elected officials to speak out on issues the way that I have. And so, look, I'm, I feel a responsibility to defend Texas. And, you know,

this specific job, you know, is very regular. focused on the oil and gas industry, obviously, but don't voters want and don't they demand elected officials who stand up and fight for everything. And so, look, one of the things I did is Tarrant County JOP chair is I talked about a lot of things that I didn't have any control over, but because I was talking about them, shining a light on them, fighting for them, people, I mean, it's one of the reasons I'm here. I think that's why I got elections because people appreciate the fact that I'm willing to stand up for the things that they're feeling and that they care about. So when you're moving forward, you talked about having a positive relationship working with the other two.

And you had said that a lot of it hinges on the leadership of the chairman and how they influence the commission. Do you think that you have enough influence as Craddock and Christian had endorsed, right, and worked with him pretty well? Do you feel like you have enough to sway some of the things that they've done in the past? This happens every time there's an election in the railroad commission. And, you know, there have been plenty of incumbent railroad commissioners who've been unseated. So this is not new territory. The commission goes on and the commissioners work well together. I've already had good conversations with both Christine Wayne.

And again, they're now supporting me in this general election campaign. So I'm confident that when I went in November that we will all work very well together. And last question is you've quoted President Trump a couple of times. It's something along the lines of Republicans can just do things. Is that correct? What are some of the things that you mentioned? I know some DEI things. Are there anything else you want to let people know we're just going to do these things?

or you're going to really push to do them. Well, what I really mean by that is, and it's echoing a frustration that a lot of our voter base feels, you know, so many, so often, and I have felt this way in my life, you know, you vote for someone because they make all these promises on the campaign trail, and then they get into office,

and they're immediately worried about their next reelection. You know, they're worried about if they're in the legislature, you know, getting into a leadership position or something along those lines. And oftentimes some of these people sort of lose side of why they were elected. And what they talked about on the campaign trail, and a lot of voters, I know, because I've traveled the entire state, I've talked to voters all over the place, are frustrated with politicians who kind of make all these promises and then don't do it. I mean, just look at Washington, D.C. right now.

You know, the Save Act gets like 80% approval among Republicans, but like 78% approval among Democrats. And yet our Republican senators can't seem to get that across the finish line. And so that's just an example of how voters are really frustrated with politicians. who, you know, act like they're conservative or talk about doing these conservative things, and then they don't do them when they're in office. And so, look, I just, I tell people, I'm not smart enough to BSU. I'm just going to, I'm just going to do and fight for the things that I know are right and what the what the voters are demanding. And it's that simple for me. Okay, well, thank you so much for speaking. You got it. We really appreciate it.

Nice to meet you and thank you.