Candidate for United States Senate. Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, the state's energy agency.
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Watch Chairman Williams' speech from the Republican National Convention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M73Bts3I6Bs
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Michael L. Williams is the Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oldest regulatory commission. In November 2000, the people of Texas elected him to complete an unexpired term. In November 2002, they re-elected him to a full six-year term expiring in 2008. He was initially appointed to the Commission by former Governor George W. Bush in December 1998 to fill a vacant seat. Williams served as Chairman of the Commission from September 1999 to September 2003. He is the first African American in Texas history to hold an executive statewide elected post.
Williams serves as the Chairman of the Governor’s Competitiveness Council. He also chairs the Governor’s Clean Coal Technology Council, represents the Governor on the Southern States Energy Board and is a member of both the National Coal Council and the Interstate Compact Commission. On September 14, 2005, Governor Perry designated Williams as his designee to lead the state’s long-term Hurricanes Katrina and Rita relief efforts. Williams also serves as the Railroad Commission’s “point person” for the agency’s regulatory reform and technology modernization efforts.
The son of public school teachers who earned degrees in math and the husband of a mechanical engineer, Michael is the creator and co-sponsor of the “Williams Future Innovators”, a summer camp for 6th through 12th graders to inspire the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
An advocate of alternative energy, Williams is championing the conversion of Texas public and private fleets, especially school buses from diesel and gasoline to environmentally cleaner, cheaper and domestically produced natural gas and propane through his “Breathe Easy” initiative.
Michael is the immediate past Honorary State Chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas. He initiated the Texas response against the tragedy in Darfur.
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