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permian basin

Trump Says America’s Oil Industry Is Cleaner Than Other Countries’. New Data Shows Massive Emissions From Texas Wells

The oil industry touts Texas as a success story in controlling climate-warming methane emissions. The state’s regulator, however, grants nearly every request to burn or vent gas into the atmosphere.

By Martha Pskowski, Inside Climate News, and Mark Olalde, ProPublica

 A blackened pipe with a large gout of flame swirling out of the top.
A sign warns of dangerous hydrogen sulfide gas at a drilling site in the Permian Basin in August 2023. Exposure to high concentrations of the gas can be lethal. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News

Texas Oilfield Company and Executive Plead Guilty in Hydrogen Sulfide Deaths

By Martha Pskowski
Tanks hold oilfield waste for disposal in the Permian Basin. Credit: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Texas Oil Drillers Can Bury Toxic Waste on Private Property Without Telling the Landowner. A New Bill Seeks to Change That

By Martha Pskowski
Evaporation ponds hold produced water amid the oil wells of the Permian Basin. Credit: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Treating Texas’ Oilfield Wastewater Could Require More Energy Than Most US States

By Dylan Baddour
The development of a pipline system is seen in an oil field in the Permian Basin of New Mexico. Credit: Sherman Hogue/Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico

Bureau of Land Management Trims Environmental Review Before $20 Million Oil and Gas Lease Sale

By Marianne Lavelle
A cargo ship passes the Cheniere Energy liquefied natural gas plant on Feb. 10 in Port Arthur, Texas. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

New Pipeline Will Bring More Permian Gas to Texas Industrial Corridor

By Dylan Baddour
An oil pumpjack operates in the Permian Basin oil field in Odessa, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Project 2025 Advisor Takes the Reins at EPA Region 6

By Martha Pskowski
A view of a storage pond near Mentone in West Texas. Credit: Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Oil and Gas Waste ‘Oiled’ the Feathers of White Pelicans in Texas’ Permian Basin

By Martha Pskowski
The race for the open seat of the Railroad Commission of Texas includes (from left) Republican incumbent Christi Craddick, Democrat Katherine Culbert, Libertarian Hawk Dunlap and Eddie Espinoza of the Green Party.

Who’s Running in the Big Money Election for the Texas Railroad Commission?

By Martha Pskowski
Brandon Horton, a driver for Allied Eagle Transports, monitors the transfer of a load of salt water, a byproduct of fracking, to a disposal site south of Midland, Texas, on June 25. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

Study Links Permian Blowouts With Wastewater Injection

By Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News, and Carlos Nogueras Ramos, Texas Tribune
Pump jacks operate in a Permian Basin oilfield near Eddy County, New Mexico. Credit: Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images

New Mexico Debates What to Do With Oil and Gas Wastewater

By Martha Pskowski
Water flows from an orphaned oil well on Schuyler Wight’s ranch in Pecos County, Texas. Credit: Courtesy of Schuyler Wight

Another Blowout Adds to Mystery of Permian Basin Water Pressure

By Dylan Baddour
A view of an oil well adjacent to the Red Bluff Reservoir in Reeves County, Texas on Feb. 24, 2020. NGL Water Solutions Permian has proposed to discharge treated produced water into the reservoir. Credit: Justin Hamel

Texas Companies Eye Pecos River Watershed for Oilfield Wastewater

By Martha Pskowski, Dylan Baddour
Sharon Wilson of Oilfield Witness sets up her Optical Gas Imaging camera outside a ONEOK compressor station near the Waha Hub in Pecos County, Texas on March 16. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News

When Natural Gas Prices Cool, Flares Burn in the Permian Basin

By Martha Pskowski
A network of insulated pipes that carry liquified natural gas from ships to giant storage tanks at Sempra Energy's Costa Azul LNG terminal located about 50 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Credit: Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

LNG Exports From Mexico in Limbo While Pipeline Project Plows Ahead

By Martha Pskowski
Bill Wight looks at the well that leaked enormous volumes of saltwater on his property. It took crews over a month to seal the well and stop the leak. Credit: Sarah M. Vasquez/The Texas Tribune

‘Nobody Really Knows What You’re Supposed to Do’: Leaking, Abandoned Wells Wreak Havoc in West Texas 

By Martha Pskowski, Inside Climate News and Carlos Nogueras, Texas Tribune
Marathon Petroleum's El Paso refinery contributes to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News

El Paso Challenges Oil Refinery Permit

By Martha Pskowski
Ed Puckett helps operate Toyah's water treatment plant on a volunteer basis. During a tour of the plant in early February, he maintained that the water is safe to drink. Credit: Mitch Borden/Marfa Public Radio

How State Regulators Allowed a Fading West Texas Town to Go Over Four Years Without Safe Drinking Water

By Martha Pskowski
A malfunctioning flare at a tank battery in the New Mexico Permian Basin, photographed on Feb. 6, 2023. Incomplete combustion in a flare, as pictured, generates more emissions. Credit: WildEarth Guardians.

As Enforcement Falls Short, Many Worry That Companies Are Flouting New Mexico’s Landmark Gas Flaring Rules

By Martha Pskowski

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