TCE and Environmental Coalition Condemns Texas Railroad Commission Decisions

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Environmental Coalition Condemns Texas Railroad Commission’s Decision to Allow Rogue Flaring and Venting at Drilling Sites and to Relax Environmental Protections

Austin, TX- Yesterday, a coalition of Texas environmental groups sent an open letter to the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) urging them to take action to regulate gas flaring and venting that far exceeds state allowed limits. The letter also pressed the RRC to prevent waste by restricting production at oil and gas drilling sites across the state where the flaring and venting are the worst, in the Permian Basin in West Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale in the Coastal Bend.

Today the Texas Railroad Commission:

  • Refused to hear from environmental advocates on the Agenda items of concern;
  • Allowed 7 gas flaring and venting waivers over public health-based standards and climate change warnings and failed to disallow future flaring and venting; and,
  • Waived fees and environmental rules.

“Today’s Railroad Commission hearing shows why it’s time for new leadership at the RRC,” said Robin Schneider, Executive Director with Texas Campaign for the Environment. “Instead of certainty they created chaos that will lead to job losses and cascading bankruptcies. Instead of protecting the people of Texas, they waived rules on waste clean-up, well-plugging, and oil and gas storage. Texans will all pay in water contamination and other environmental damage. They took these actions without any public comments or real discussion even though members of the public were signed up to speak. We need new leadership that’s not beholden to the industry.”

Failure to Take Public Input
On April 21, the RRC formed a narrow industry-led task force to study the issues on today’s Agenda. However, the Commissioners would not allow resident and environmental stakeholders to speak who bring additional Texans’ concerns and information – neither in the Task Force nor at today’s hearing.

“As commissioners, you hold our common good in your decision-making hands,” said Isabel Araiza, Ph.D., Founding Member, For the Greater Good – Corpus Christi. “Today, you revealed your blatant disregard for the greater good. You voted for private greed over community need. As we face increased climate crises and declines in our public health, we will remember how, with your votes, you chose to exacerbate those problems.”

Health & Climate Impacts
Communities living next to the oil and gas industry sites, especially in the Permian Basin which is documented to have the most methane pollution in the nation, suffer higher rates of chronic conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and heart disease. Residents of Balmorhea in the Permian Basin, Sue and Jim Franklin describe the health impacts to them from gas venting. Higher rates of pollution are also linked to increased vulnerability to viruses like COVID-19.

“Flaring both wastes future Texans’ resources and it accelerates us towards climate catastrophe,” said Sharon Wilson with Earthworks. Wilson works with the Franklins and other people on the front lines of oil and gas drilling in Texas. “Whether you believe oil and gas will fuel us forever, or climate change means we have to ditch fossil fuels in our lifetime, every flare is a failure of the Railroad Commission to manage Texas’s oil & gas.”

Free Pass to Pollute
In addition to the decision to not regulate flaring, the Commission went even further by waiving pollution fees and relaxing environmental rules.

“By granting these permits to pollute, by waiving pollution fees and relaxing the environmental regulations, the Commissioners are giving Big Oil a green light to burn up our resources, our health and the future of our children,” said Emma Pabst, Global Warming Solutions Advocate with Environment Texas. “The Railroad Commission needs to pull the brake on dangerous flaring and stop this runaway train from destroying our state.”

Specifically, the Commission approved three resolutions that temporarily weaken regulations, enforcement and lower revenues to the State of Texas. The resolutions passed today by the Texas Railroad Commission will:

  • create exceptions to Statewide Rule 78, eliminating fees and surcharges on five different types of permits over the next year, which could mean millions of lost revenues to the State of Texas that are used to hire inspectors, permit writers and even to plug wells;
  • create exceptions to Statewide Rule 8, which gives industry an additional year to clean up dirty oil and gas pits, to Statewide Rule 14, which allows industry up to two years to plug inactive wells, allows some exceptions to the Commission’s casing rules (Statewide Rule 13),and  gives further discretion on enforcement that could lower administrative fines for lawbreakers (Statewide Rule 107);
  • create a new temporary policy on Statewide Rule 95, by for the first time ever allowing oil operators to store crude oil underground in formations that are not an underground salt formation.

“Despite continued requests for action to lower pollution, the Commission decided to favor industry again and allow companies to routinely burn hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollution into the atmosphere, poisoning our air and cooking our climate,” noted Cyrus Reed, interim Director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. “This is a devastating decision for our climate, community health, and economy.”

NOTE:  Texas Campaign for the Environment, Sierra Club, and other environmental organizations will hold a Railroad Commission Candidates’ Forum online on the evening of Wednesday, May 27th. Details to be announced. For more information, contact: donna AT texasenvironment DOT org or phone 512-299-5776.

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TCE and Allies Urge TX Railroad Commission to Stop Gas Venting and Flaring

Written by

Environmental Groups Ask the Texas Railroad Commission to
Stop Harmful Gas Flaring and Venting in Oil Field Sites Across Texas

Key Stakeholders Object to Industry Heavy Composition
of Railroad Commission’s “Blue Ribbon Task Force”

(Austin) The Texas Railroad Commission prepares to make a decision on Tuesday, February 5 in the debate regarding restriction of production at oil drilling sites across the state where operators practice gas flaring and venting. In advance of the hearing, environmental groups signed and delivered an open letter to the Railroad Commission.

Read the text of the letter with the list of signatories siting concerns about:

  • Waste of natural resources;
  • Public health harm and risk; and,
  • Climate change impacts.

“The pollution emitted by gas flaring and the less visible but even more harmful practice of venting is making Texans across the state chronically ill and even more vulnerable to life-threatening diseases such as in the current COVID crisis,” said Robin Schneider, Executive Director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment. “With the massive glut in the market, there is absolutely no need for the drilling and it is unconscionable to continue putting Texans’ health at risk by continuing to give flaring waivers and pushing climate change disaster. The environmental community is united in asking the Railroad Commission to follow historic precedent and put an end to gas flaring and venting in Texas now.”

On April 21, the Commission established a Blue-Ribbon Task Force made of oil and gas companies and their lobby organizations. The Commission failed to announce non-industry stakeholders as part of the Task Force, for example, the signatories of today’s open letter, among them Schneider’s group Texas Campaign for the Environment, other statewide environmental organizations such as Sierra Club and Environment Texas, and regional groups such as Big Bend Conservation Alliance and Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley), among others.

“The Railroad Commission has an opportunity to protect the environment, dark skies, and health of the residents of West Texas by stopping the harmful and wasteful practice of flaring,” said James Newsom, Executive Director of Big Bend Conservation Alliance.  “Flaring has greatly impacted the environment, dark skies, and health of West Texas residents – we have suffered enough. The Railroad Commission can fix the mess they created by pressing the reset button on flaring.”

The letter brought out the particular impacts that Permian Basin waste, flaring and venting has on climate change emissions.

“Permian Basin gas waste is more than the annual consumption of natural gas by each of the following countries: Denmark, Greece, Hong  Kong,  Switzerland, and many more. Imagine pissing away the natural gas consumed by an entire small country!” said Bill Berg, Associate Director of Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley). “The result of that waste and methane emissions is the acceleration of climate change to climate catastrophe.  And it is being done by the State of Texas, where the Railroad Commission has so far been responsible for approving this disaster. If this were a science fiction movie the Commission could be a co-conspirator with the Evil Empire, approving damaging an atmosphere so that the population would be so distracted by dealing with floods and forest fires and pandemics that they could not defend their planet against invasion. This is not science fiction, do not help make it a reality. Do the right thing, Railroad Commission.”

The groups’ open letter asks the Railroad Commissioners to “…take strong action this week and, in the future, to limit production, especially focused on the bad practice of flaring and to establish a process for changing your policy and rules related to flaring, venting and gas capture over limits. We also urge you to reject all flaring waivers on this week’s agenda.”

For More Information Contact:  Robin Schneider, 512-299-1640, robin AT texasenvironment DOT org, or
Donna Hoffman, 512-299-5776, donna AT texasenvironment DOT org

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OPEN LETTER TO TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS

May 4, 2020

Dear Chairman Christian and Commissioners Craddick and Sitton,

The first 15 words of the mission of the Texas Railroad Commission are: “Our mission is to serve Texas by our stewardship of natural resources and the environment…” Historically, the greatest success to this end was the Texas Railroad Commission’s elimination of flaring in the 20th century. Today, this critical part of the agency’s mission is unrecognizable.

Thousands of people listened to the April 14 hearing about limiting production. Excessive flaring came up time and again speaker after speaker, on all sides of this pro-rationing issue, by industry and other interested parties. Texas residents in more than 1000 comments urged the Railroad Commission to address this pollution. One oil and gas industry insider said that “flaring is the biggest black eye on our industry.”

Yet, last week, the Commission rubber-stamped more flaring permits and seven more are on your agenda on May 5th. The option to do the right thing comes before you at your May 5th hearing. We encourage you to reaffirm Texas’ earlier historical precedent by taking strong action this week to limit production, especially focused on the bad practice of flaring over limits. We also urge you to reject the flaring waivers that are on the agenda.

The only measure you have announced to address flaring so far is a Blue-Ribbon Committee. Not one environmental organization was included in this Committee to develop approaches to flaring. That speaks volumes about how serious this agency is about examining the full range of concerns and solutions.

Commissioners, your predecessors stopped this wasteful practice. History is repeating itself in West Texas. Do not fail to use your power wisely. Please follow their example and fulfill your responsibility to protect our natural resources. By doing so, you can protect the health and lives of many Texans.

Climate change, caused in large part by fossil fuel emissions[i], is wreaking havoc and causing tragedies for Texans as extreme weather events increase in frequency. Science shows that the planet’s warming is an undeniable contributor to extreme weather including ultra-strong hurricanes, tornados, rain bombs, floods. In addition, we experience drought and fires from extreme evaporation during increased and growing numbers of over 100-degree days. Many areas of Texas are looking at possible 100-degree days in the first week of May – a full month earlier than usual.

The science demonstrates that West Texas is playing an outsized role in disrupting the climate. New research from satellite data has found that the Permian emits methane at twice the rate of any other oil and gas fields in the nation.[ii]

The losses from climate change impacts in other parts of the country and the world are incalculable – from the 2019 floods of the Mississippi to fires in California, the Amazon, and Australia. It is now impossible to ignore and we must take steps for our own resiliency in Texas.

In addition to climate impacts, flaring results in toxic air pollution including formaldehyde, benzene, and pollutants that contribute to increased smog, which worsens heart and lung diseases and other health conditions. These pre-existing conditions make people more vulnerable to early death, including from pandemics like Covid-19.

Finally, the direct economic impacts are clear, flaring waste costs our state in lost revenue now and in the future.

We respectfully ask the Railroad Commission to uphold its mission and conserve our state’s resources in the ground rather than allowing drillers to generate waste through flaring and venting. The costs for our climate, our health and the state’s financial resources are too high to continue on our current wasteful and reckless path.

Again, we ask you, Commissioners, take strong action this week and in the future to limit production, especially focused on the bad practice of flaring and to establish a process for changing your policy and rules related to flaring, venting and gas capture over limits. We also urge you to reject all flaring waivers on this week’s agenda.

Isabel Araiza, Ph.D., Founding Member, For the Greater Good – Corpus Christi
Ranjana Bhandari, Chair, Liveable Arlington
Gene Collins, Environmental Justice Chair, National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), Texas
Tricia Cortez, Executive Director, Rio Grande International Study Center
David Foster, State Director, Clean Water Action
Juan Macias, Tribal Chair, Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas
Luke Metzger, Executive Director, Environment Texas
James Newsom, Executive Director, Big Bend Conservation Alliance
Frankie Orona, Executive Director, Society of Native Nations
Virginia Palacios, Climate and Clean Air Program Consultant, Green Latinos
Juan Parras, Founder & Executive Director, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services
Cyrus Reed, Interim Director, The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club
Robin Schneider, Executive Director, Texas Campaign for the Environment
Adrian Shelley, Texas Office Director, Public Citizen
Sharon Wilson, Senior Field Advocate and Thermographer, Earthworks
Bill Berg, Associate Director, Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley)

 

[i] Curbing anthropogenic methane emissions, including those from the oil/gas sector, is considered an effective strategy to slow the rate of near-term climate warming. D. Shindell, J. C. I. Kuylenstierna, E. Vignati, R. van Dingenen, M. Amann, Z. Klimont, S. C. Anenberg, N. Muller, G. Janssens-Maenhout, F. Raes, J. Schwartz, G. Faluvegi, L. Pozzoli, K. Kupiainen, L. Höglund-Isaksson, L. Emberson, D. Streets, V. Ramanathan, K. Hicks, N. T. K. Oanh, G. Milly, M. Williams, V. Demkine, D. Fowler, Simultaneously mitigating near-term climate change and improving human health and food security. Science 335, 183–189 (2012).

[ii] Based on satellite measurements from May 2018 to March 2019, Permian methane emissions from oil and natural gas production are estimated to be 2.7 ± 0.5 Tg a−1, representing the largest methane flux ever reported from a U.S. oil/gas-producing region and are more than two times higher than bottom-up inventory-based estimates. Yuzhong Zhang, Ritesh Gautam,, Sudhanshu Pandey, Mark Omara, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Pankaj Sadavarte, David Lyon, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Daniel J. Varon, Ruixiong Zhang, Sander Houweling, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Ramon A. Alvarez, Alba Lorente, Steven P. Hamburg, Ilse Aben and Daniel J. Jacob, “Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space”, Science Advances  22 Apr 2020: Vol. 6, no. 17, eaaz5120 DOI: 10.1126/ sciadv.aaz5120, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/17/eaaz5120

 

Open Letter to the Texas Railroad Commission – Stop Flaring and Venting

Written by

May 4, 2020

Dear Chairman Christian and Commissioners Craddick and Sitton,

The first 15 words of the mission of the Texas Railroad Commission are: “Our mission is to serve Texas by our stewardship of natural resources and the environment…” Historically, the greatest success to this end was the Texas Railroad Commission’s elimination of flaring in the 20th century. Today, this critical part of the agency’s mission is unrecognizable.

Thousands of people listened to the April 14 hearing about limiting production. Excessive flaring came up time and again, speaker after speaker, on all sides of this pro-rationing issue, by industry and other interested parties. Texas residents in more than 1,000 comments urged the Railroad Commission to address this pollution. One oil and gas industry insider said that “flaring is the biggest black eye on our industry.”

Yet, last week, the Commission rubber-stamped more flaring permits and seven more are on your agenda on May 5th. The option to do the right thing comes before you at your May 5th hearing. We encourage you to reaffirm Texas’ earlier historical precedent by taking strong action this week to limit production, especially focused on the bad practice of flaring over limits. We also urge you to reject the flaring waivers that are on the agenda.

The only measure you have announced to address flaring so far is a Blue-Ribbon Committee. Not one environmental organization was included in this Committee to develop approaches to flaring. That speaks volumes about how serious this agency is about examining the full range of concerns and solutions.

Commissioners, your predecessors stopped this wasteful practice. History is repeating itself in West Texas. Do not fail to use your power wisely. Please follow their example and fulfill your responsibility to protect our natural resources. By doing so, you can protect the health and lives of many Texans.

Climate change, caused in large part by fossil fuel emissions[i], is wreaking havoc and causing tragedies for Texans as extreme weather events increase in frequency. Science shows that the planet’s warming is an undeniable contributor to extreme weather including ultra-strong hurricanes, tornados, rain bombs, floods. In addition, we experience drought and fires from extreme evaporation during increased and growing numbers of over 100-degree days. Many areas of Texas are looking at possible 100-degree days in the first week of May – a full month earlier than usual.

The science demonstrates that West Texas is playing an outsized role in disrupting the climate. New research from satellite data has found that the Permian emits methane at twice the rate of any other oil and gas fields in the nation.[ii]

The losses from climate change impacts in other parts of the country and the world are incalculable – from the 2019 floods of the Mississippi to fires in California, the Amazon, and Australia. It is now impossible to ignore and we must take steps for our own resiliency in Texas.

In addition to climate impacts, flaring results in toxic air pollution including formaldehyde, benzene, and pollutants that contribute to increased smog, which worsens heart and lung diseases and other health conditions. These pre-existing conditions make people more vulnerable to early death, including from pandemics like Covid-19.

Finally, the direct economic impacts are clear, flaring waste costs our state in lost revenue now and in the future.

We respectfully ask the Railroad Commission to uphold its mission and conserve our state’s resources in the ground rather than allowing drillers to generate waste through flaring and venting. The costs for our climate, our health and the state’s financial resources are too high to continue on our current wasteful and reckless path.

Again, we ask you, Commissioners, take strong action this week and in the future to limit production, especially focused on the bad practice of flaring and to establish a process for changing your policy and rules related to flaring, venting and gas capture over limits. We also urge you to reject all flaring waivers on this week’s agenda.

Isabel Araiza, Ph.D., Founding Member, For the Greater Good – Corpus Christi
Ranjana Bhandari, Chair, Liveable Arlington
Gene Collins, Environmental Justice Chair, National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), Texas
Tricia Cortez, Executive Director, Rio Grande International Study Center
David Foster, State Director, Clean Water Action
Juan Macias, Tribal Chair, Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas
Luke Metzger, Executive Director, Environment Texas
James Newsom, Executive Director, Big Bend Conservation Alliance
Frankie Orona, Executive Director, Society of Native Nations
Virginia Palacios, Climate and Clean Air Program Consultant, Green Latinos
Juan Parras, Founder & Executive Director, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services
Cyrus Reed, Interim Director, The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club
Robin Schneider, Executive Director, Texas Campaign for the Environment
Adrian Shelley, Texas Office Director, Public Citizen
Sharon Wilson, Senior Field Advocate and Thermographer, Earthworks
Bill Berg, Associate Director, Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley)

 

[i] Curbing anthropogenic methane emissions, including those from the oil/gas sector, is considered an effective strategy to slow the rate of near-term climate warming. D. Shindell, J. C. I. Kuylenstierna, E. Vignati, R. van Dingenen, M. Amann, Z. Klimont, S. C. Anenberg, N. Muller, G. Janssens-Maenhout, F. Raes, J. Schwartz, G. Faluvegi, L. Pozzoli, K. Kupiainen, L. Höglund-Isaksson, L. Emberson, D. Streets, V. Ramanathan, K. Hicks, N. T. K. Oanh, G. Milly, M. Williams, V. Demkine, D. Fowler, Simultaneously mitigating near-term climate change and improving human health and food security. Science 335, 183–189 (2012).

[ii] Based on satellite measurements from May 2018 to March 2019, Permian methane emissions from oil and natural gas production are estimated to be 2.7 ± 0.5 Tg a−1, representing the largest methane flux ever reported from a U.S. oil/gas-producing region and are more than two times higher than bottom-up inventory-based estimates. Yuzhong Zhang, Ritesh Gautam,, Sudhanshu Pandey, Mark Omara, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Pankaj Sadavarte, David Lyon, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Daniel J. Varon, Ruixiong Zhang, Sander Houweling, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Ramon A. Alvarez, Alba Lorente, Steven P. Hamburg, Ilse Aben and Daniel J. Jacob, “Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space”, Science Advances  22 Apr 2020: Vol. 6, no. 17, eaaz5120 DOI: 10.1126/ sciadv.aaz5120, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/17/eaaz5120