Welcome Dr. Maria Reyes and Tannya Benavides to the Commission Shift Staff
Dynamic researcher-advocates join growing movement to reform the Railroad Commission of Texas
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We’re pleased to welcome two new staff members to the Commission Shift team.
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Dr. Maria A. Reyes is a first-generation immigrant from Mexico. She came to the United States after the 1984 San Juanico Fire (a liquid petroleum gas tank explosion) and the 1985 earthquake. Right after high school, she left to serve in the U.S. military. As a non-citizen, all she could do is serve under support and supply jobs, randomly ending up as a petroleum supply specialist.
She started her higher education in the military and graduated from Auburn University with a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Policy. As a professor in that field, she taught federal and Texas state government classes for eight years at Texas A&M International University. The focus of her classes was the development of personal responsibility in governance and civic activism, grounded in power dynamics. Understanding the role of the Railroad Commission of Texas was essential to understanding power dynamics in the struggle for environmental protection and environmental justice.
Her research is interdisciplinary, but her interest in civic activism brought her back to the topic of oil. In helping an ex-compliance officer set up a business for landowners to identify whether the oil company is following regulations for the extraction of oil on their land, she discovered discrepancies between the RRC's intended purpose and regulatory responsibilities, and the actual actions of the commission. She found Commission Shift and was inspired to use her passion for civic activism, her policy analysis knowledge, and her research skills, to become part of the solution in making government responsive to all peoples. At Commission Shift she seeks to advance better safeguards to protect Texas land and water resources.
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Tannya Benavides is a first-generation Mexican American and the daughter of working class immigrants. A product of Laredo ISD schools, Tannya earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Texas State University with minors in English and History. Tannya also holds a Masters in Education with a concentration in Education Policy.
Tannya joins Commission Shift with the hope to build a coalition and widespread support for environmentally sound reforms that will center present and future generations of Texans in years to come.
In spring 2020, Tannya came back home to Laredo, where she joined the No Border Wall Coalition to help in the fight and defeat the U.S./Mexico border wall. Their efforts culminated with the cancellation of contracts worth over $1 billion and 71 miles of wall in October 2021.
Tannya previously co-founded and led the grassroots coalition Organizing For Equity NY. As a classroom teacher and lead organizer in New York, Tannya helped attain policy wins at the NYC Department of Education including an expansion of the universal 3K program. She also worked to drop the length of out-of-school suspensions from 180 school days down to 20 days, and the addition of community schools to high-need districts.
Before that Tannya served in Teach For America, where she was called to teach third grade bilingual education in Houston. She also became a community organizer with the Organizing Network for Education (ONE) Houston, where she contributed to a policy win that effectively canceled a multi-million dollar contract with the third-party affiliate private prison company, Camelot Schools of Texas.
Welcome Maria and Tannya!
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Public Participation Update
Draft Monitoring and Enforcement Plan for FY 2023
Until April 29, the Railroad Commission is accepting public comments on its Draft Monitoring and Enforcement Plan for Fiscal Year 2023. Do you have stories of times you didn’t get the service you expected from the Railroad Commission? This is your chance to comment.
To submit comments online, visit the RRC’s website. Commission Shift commented on the plan last year, and we documented how the Railroad Commission did not fulfill its statutory requirements for what should be included in the plan. Read more about the last plan (FY2022) here.
For a quick overview of what's in the FY 2023 draft plan (17 minutes), you may view a recording of our Community Conversation from March 31, 2022.
If you or anyone you know may need language accommodation in Spanish, please share the following:
Dile a la RRC lo que piensas a su Plan de Monitoreo y Cumplimiento de la División de Petróleo y Gas para el Año Fiscal 2023.
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Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
This week, 20 Texas groups including Commission Shift sent official comments to the White House Council on Environmental Quality on its draft “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) Guidance.”
These organizations represent Texas communities that would be the most impacted by onshore and offshore carbon storage, carbon dioxide pipeline expansion, industrial chemical processing for CCUS purposes, and utilization of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
Carbon capture could be an important tool to help slow the climate crisis, but only if there are adequate safeguards in place and communities' concerns are authentically addressed. This broad-based set of Texas advocacy groups and experts is sending the White House a clear message about what we want to see in the final guidance.
The Railroad Commission of Texas is planning to change state rules so that it can apply for "primacy" from U.S. EPA to permit carbon dioxide in injection wells. We are concerned about this change, given the Railroad Commission’s opposition to methane emission standards, not to mention their track record on flaring, orphan wells, and injection-related earthquakes. The commissioners could vote to move forward with the draft rule change and EPA pre-application at the May 3 open meeting and would be followed by 45 days of public comment.
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Orphan wells update
The Department of the Interior has now approved the Initial Grant Guidance relating to how states can access federal funding to clean up orphan oil and gas wells. The deadline for states to apply for funding is May 15, and the Railroad Commission of Texas has indicated that it plans to apply.
At last week’s RRC open meeting, commissioners said they did not believe they had jurisdiction to plug polluting oil and gas wells that were reclassified to be water wells using Form P-13. This is a problem in Pecos County where wells like these caused subsurface damage resulting in a sinkhole on FM 1053 and a growing 60-acre saltwater lake called Boehmer Lake. Instead of spending $27 million to reroute FM 1053, the Texas Department of Transportation should collaborate with the Railroad Commission to solve an active pollution problem that is too big for counties and landowners to solve on their own.
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Winterization update
Let’s not forget the devastation caused by the power outages from Winter Storm Uri. We’re expecting the Electricity Supply Chain Map to be presented to the legislature this month, but it will not be available to the public. Only gas supply chain facilities that are both designated as critical and on the map will be required to be winterized. Once the map is published, the Railroad Commission will begin its rulemaking process on winterization. Commission Shift will push for transparency in who is included on the map, strong winterization requirements,s and penalties high enough to deter noncompliance.
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Media Highlights
Find more coverage on our news page.
P.S. Be sure to follow Commission Shift on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
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Commission Shift
212 Flores Avenue
Laredo, TX 78040
United States
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