Making Waves across the State

In the past month, Commission Shift’s Executive Director, Virginia Palacios, has been busy crossing the state to raise awareness about the need for reforms at the Railroad Commission.

 

First we were proud to be a partner of the Texas Energy Summit in Austin, where Virginia was on the popular plenary session “Increasing Resiliency Post-Uri.” Moderator Evan Smith of The Texas Tribune joined Virginia along with State Senator José Menéndez and Caitlin Smith from Jupiter Power to talk about lessons learned from the 2021 winter storms.

Evan Smith asked Virginia for the top thing Texas could do to fix the electric grid, and she replied: “Ethics reform and ending conflicts of interest at the Railroad Commission.”

 

Next, Virginia went to Houston for the big CERAWeek conference, dubbed the energy industry’s Superbowl by Politico. There she met with energy industry leaders, journalists, public officials and others to make the case for reforms at the Railroad Commission (RRC).

 

As the spring begins across Texas, Commission Shift will continue advocating statewide for reforms at our oil and gas regulatory agency. Don’t forget there’s a runoff election coming up for Railroad Commissioner; your voice matters. Find nonpartisan election information here.

 

Thank you for being part of this journey and movement.

Job Openings – Deputy Director and Campaign Director

The Commission Shift team is growing, and we’re still looking for two experienced professionals. There is still time to apply for one of these open positions, or spread the word!

Federal comment periods are open on orphan wells and carbon capture

 

Deadline: March 30, 2022 - The U.S. Department of the Interior is accepting comments on its draft State Initial Grant Guidance for federal infrastructure funds that can go toward plugging and cleaning up orphaned oil and gas wells. States are eligible for up to $25 million each in the Initial Grant period. Subsequent Formula Grants and Performance Grants will be available later.

 

Deadline: April 18, 2022 - The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is accepting comments on “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration Guidance” (CCUS) to assist Federal agencies with the regulation and permitting of CCUS activities in the United States.
 

CCUS could be a useful strategy in reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to help us reach “net zero” emissions by 2050. Texas is known to have the ideal geologic conditions for keeping captured and liquefied carbon underground near oil and gas development zones and power plant infrastructure. As CCUS development increases, we can expect massive infrastructure development across Texas, including pipeline expansion. Commission Shift will be submitting comments on the CEQ Guidance to suggest ways that CCUS development can best suit the needs of communities that are most likely to be impacted by the infrastructure expansion. Federal rules related to CCUS will likely be implemented by the RRC. Our goal is to ensure that monitoring, verification, and enforcement standards for these facilities remain high, especially if the railroad commissioners don’t believe that climate change is human caused.

Join us for a Community Conversation

The Draft Oil and Gas Monitoring and Enforcement Strategic Plan for FY 2023 is on the RRC’s next Open Meeting agenda. Last year, after review of the draft plan and the final plan, we felt the RRC had not fulfilled its statutory requirements for the plan. If you have had an interaction with the RRC’s monitoring and enforcement processes, please sign up for our Community Conversation on March 31st at 5 PM.

Monitoring the Railroad Commission Open Meetings Agenda

 

The next open meeting of the Railroad Commission of Texas will be March 29 at 8:30am CT. These meetings often fly under the radar, but Commission Shift is working hard to raise attention on the important topics discussed and make sure Texans know how to participate.

Next week’s meeting, which will be streamed online here, will cover:

• A Junction Resources complaint regarding Texas Trade International’s application for a disposal well permit in Martin County. We have written about how campaign contributions can affect cases like these in our Captive Agency reports.
• A hearing on Petrolia Group and Siana Oil & Gas requirements to plug several wells in Brown County and Jefferson County. Siana has 72 wells on the Railroad Commission’s orphan wells list, most of which have been inactive for over 5 years. 

Landowners and neighbors experience threats to groundwater, air quality, soil, and safety as they wait for inactive and orphaned wells to be plugged. Meanwhile methane emissions speed the pace of climate change.

 

The Railroad Commission has rules that require operators to plug inactive wells within 12 months, but it routinely grants extensions to well plugging requirements -just like it does with flaring rule exceptions. Learn more in our orphan wells reports.

Commission Shift will live tweet the RRC’s open meeting, and you can follow along.

 

How to sign up for comment or Public Input:
The deadline to sign up to address the commission on an agenda item or during public input is noon Mon, March 28th. (Note: They don't have to call on you if you're commenting on an agenda item).

 

People who want to speak on an item that is NOT on the agenda, must register to do so in the Public Input section. Note: you may not speak about an agenda item in the Public Input section.

 

See more details in the RRC’s March 29th open meeting agenda.

Media Highlights

• Student journalists at The Cronkite Center at Arizona State University produced an article and video about methane emissions, featuring Commission Shift’s analysis.
• With a runoff election coming up for the Railroad Commission, the Texas Observer included our perspective on why this agency is so important. 
• And RTO Insider, a trade publication, captured some comments from the Texas Energy Summit.

Find more coverage on our news page.

 

P.S. Be sure to follow Commission Shift on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

 

Commission Shift
212 Flores Avenue
Laredo, TX 78040
United States

If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please (Unsubscribing is not supported in previews).