Avoiding water scarcity: Lessons from California
Texas has the opportunity to learn from California’s failures and to avoid the mired path that California set itself on.
Texas has the opportunity to learn from California’s failures and to avoid the mired path that California set itself on.
In this instance, however, with the barest glimpse at the facts, it becomes apparent that health and safety concerns are nothing but a convenient veil for municipalities looking to expand their power.
Recently, squabbles over which states intend to comply with the Clean Power Plan have emerged. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through the Clean Power Plan, seeks to extend its regulatory tentacles out to everything that has an effect on carbon dioxide emission.
"Testimony: Regulation & Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions" is Center for Energy & the Environment Policy Analyst Leigh Thompson's testimony before the International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives in opposition to House Bill 2080.
"Testimony: Rights of a Groundwater Owner" contains Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment Policy Analyst Leigh Thompson's testimony on House Bill 4112 before the Texas Legislature Natural Resources Committee of the House of Representatives.
The Obama Administration rolled out the latest threat to the U.S. energy boom in the form of a methane emissions reduction plan.
Leigh Thompson's testimony in support of House Bill 40 and Senate Bill 1165 before the Texas Legislature Energy Committee of the House of Representatives.
Citing a 2011 earthquake with a 5.6 magnitude, the USGS researchers point at fracking as the cause of the largest quake in Oklahoma’s history. What they fail to mention is that the 2011 quake is the largest by .1 – and the next to largest occurred in 1952.
Yes, the number of earthquakes in Texas and globally has increased. Yes, the numbers of fracking wells and wastewater injection wells being used in Texas has increased. Are the two related? Frankly, no one knows and those who say definitely one way or the other are being disingenuous or deceptive.
The EPA estimates that 10% of the total greenhouse gases emitted in 2012 came from methane and that 30% of those emissions were derived from the oil and gas industry. Notably, the second largest contributor to methane emissions is livestock.