Happy Hour 146 - Dark Water: How The Texas Railroad Commission Threatens Our Future

In the Crane County oil patch, a recent catastrophic spill of produced water, a toxic byproduct of the petroleum extraction process, has brought to the forefront the threat this stuff poses to groundwater across Texas. In this election year, it also highlights the worsening of that threat resulting from the chronic mismanagement and public obfuscation regarding produced water by the Texas Railroad Commission, the elected, three-member body supposedly in charge of keeping Texas' environment safe in the midst of our all-time high petroleum production, but in reality known as largely a rubber stamp for whatever policy and procedure our state's energy sector finds most expedient and profitable. On this episode, we talk to Bill Burch, petroleum expert and Progress Texas-endorsed candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, as well as Alex Ortiz, Water Resources Chair of the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter on the Crane County produced water spill, the ramifications this gross stuff and its management have for our environmental future, and how the Commission should be held accountable. Learn more about Bill Burch and his campaign at https://burch4trrc.com/, and learn more about the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club at https://www.sierraclub.org/texas. Find the Houston Chronicle's editorial endorsement of President Biden's pause of new LNG approvals at https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/biden-lng-export-trump-election-18680419.php. Thanks for listening! Please consider becoming one of our 29 new recurring donors during our February membership drive at https://progresstexas.org/donate.