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permian basin

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

The Texas attorney general finally filed suit last year, but some residents in Toyah say the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was “negligent” and want to know what took so long.

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
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

David Shifflett, a farmer in Reeves County, parses records of his protests to the Texas Railroad Commission against permits for nearby wastewater injection wells.

Landowners Fear Injection of Fracking Waste Threatens Aquifers in West Texas

By Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News, with photos by Pu Ying Huang, Texas Tribune  

A flare stack is pictured next to pump jacks and other oil and gas infrastructure on April 24, 2020 near Odessa, Texas. Credit: Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images

Texas Environmentalists Look to EPA for Action on Methane, Saying State Agencies Have ‘Failed Us’

By Martha Pskowski

In an aerial view, an oil pumpjack works in the Permian Basin oil field on March 12, 2022 in Crane, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

EPA Moves Away From Permian Air Pollution Crackdown

By Martha Pskowski, Dylan Baddour

A fracking site is situated on the outskirts of town in the Permian Basin oil field on Jan. 21, 2016 in the oil town of Midland, Texas. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Fracking Waste Gets a Second Look to Ease Looming West Texas Water Shortage

By Dylan Baddour

Workers at a fracking rig in Midland. Studies have linked disposal of fracking wastewater with an increase in seismic activity in Texas, and the Texas Railroad Commission is now investigating a 5.4 magnitude quake that struck West Texas this week. Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune

Texas Oil and Gas Agency Investigating 5.4 Magnitude Earthquake in West Texas, the Largest in Three Decades

By Erin Douglas, The Texas Tribune and Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News

An oil pumpjack pulls oil from the Permian Basin oil field on March 14, 2022 in Odessa, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Texas Study Finds ‘Massive Amount’ of Toxic Wastewater With Few Options for Reuse

By Dylan Baddour

Workers for an oilfield service company work at a drilling site in the Permian Basin oil field on Jan. 20, 2016 in the oil town of Andrews, Texas. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A New GOP Climate Plan Is Long on Fossil Fuels, Short on Specifics

By Dan Gearino

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