To Ranjana Bhandari, executive director of environmental advocacy group Liveable Arlington, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules to reduce oil and gas pollution are more than policy changes. The regulations, and what they represent, feel personal to her.
“Those emissions are harming not just the climate, but they’re actually harming Texans right now,” Bhandari said, pointing to studies connecting natural gas drilling to health effects such as asthma and birth defects.
Bhandari has given top EPA officials a tour of natural gas operations in Tarrant County, where nearly 1 million people live within a half mile of a drill site. She participated in a roundtable discussion with EPA Administrator Michael Regan and pushed the Biden administration to crack down on flaring, the process of routinely burning off excess natural gas and releasing chemicals into the air.
In December, Bhandari’s years of activism appeared to bear fruit. The federal government announced a final rule to cut methane emissions by 58 million tons between 2024 and 2038. Methane is a “super pollutant,” more potent than carbon dioxide and a key factor in global warming, according to the EPA. Oil and gas companies, the largest source of methane, would be required to eliminate flaring, monitor methane leaks and establish new standards for polluting equipment.
“This was the first time we had some hope that industry would be made to clean up its act and just stop polluting the air,” Bhandari said.
Leaders of the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, don’t share Bhandari’s view. During their Jan. 30 meeting, three commissioners voted unanimously to direct Attorney General Ken Paxton to challenge the EPA’s new rules in court. The state will wait to file a lawsuit until after the regulations are published in the Federal Register.
Commissioners did not elaborate on why they wanted to challenge the new rules. Railroad Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality staff previously expressed concerns in comments to the EPA, Betsy Peticolas, an attorney for the commission, said.
In response to criticism from environmental activists, commissioner Wayne Christian said the Railroad Commission has already taken action to significantly reduce flaring.
“To say we’ve sat back and done nothing is a bald-faced lie,” Christian said.
Several oil and gas companies, including BP America, publicly supported the EPA’s rules upon their introduction in December.
“A well-designed rule will help drive material methane emission reductions this decade and beyond,” Orlando Alvarez, chairman and president of BP America, said in a statement. “We appreciate the collaborative way EPA, (nongovernmental organizations) and industry worked together on this rulemaking.”
The Texas Oil & Gas Association, the state’s largest trade association for oil and gas operators, did not respond to a request for comment on the Railroad Commission’s decision or the EPA regulations.
A coalition of environmental groups, including Environmental Defense Fund, Commission Shift and Environment Texas, held a Jan. 30 press conference protesting the commission’s vote. Adrian Shelley, executive director of consumer rights group Public Citizen, said he didn’t believe the action was taken on behalf of industry.
“What (companies) really crave is regulatory certainty. They want to know what the rules are, so that they can follow them and move on with their businesses,” Shelley said. “I’m left to conclude that the Railroad Commissioners acted today on their own behalf, out of political self-interest and grandstanding.”
The state is using millions of federal dollars to plug abandoned oil and gas wells across Texas. Cutting methane emissions should be part of the state’s collaboration with the federal government, Shelley added.
Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, pointed to the findings of a recent Boston University study to explain his support for the EPA’s new regulations.
Researchers found that, in 2016, Texas ranked first in the nation for air pollution-related deaths with 1,314. Tarrant County led the state, with 170 deaths. The methane rule would prevent 1,500 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks, according to EPA estimates.
The Railroad Commission’s decision doesn’t make sense to Bhandari, who compared the “common sense” protections to requiring drivers to get leaks fixed before passing an inspection. She fears the consequences of delaying the regulations in court, especially for Tarrant County residents living near current and former gas drilling operations.
Liveable Arlington’s work to challenge natural gas permitting near homes and schools will continue, she said.
“We’ve got our act together. The state needs to get its act together,” Bhandari said. “This is not a political issue. We all breathe this air. We all want the best for our children.”
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Arlington Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.