Texas oil regulators take no action on production
A day after oil prices crashed, The Texas Railroad Commission opted against taking action to impose limits on oil producers. Full Story
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![An oil pump jack during a storm in Refugio County in 2017.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Bill Harvey -
Texas' oil and gas regulators aren't ready to cut production yet. They're not even sure how it would work if they did.
The Railroad Commission, which oversees the state's oil and gas industry, took more than 10 hours of testimony about whether the agency should lower production as the coronavirus lowers demand. Full Story
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![Looking west, a lone pump jack sees the sun dip below the horizon Saturday April 11, 2020 as oil prices continue to drop, causing residents of the Permian Basin to look at the future with uncertainty.]()
Credit: Ben Powell for The Texas Tribune -
Coronavirus in Texas: Hard-line conservatives want stay-at-home order relaxed; Paxton issues opinion on temporary tax exemption
Our staff is closely tracking developments on the new coronavirus in Texas. Check here for live updates. Full Story
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![A coronavirus related message on the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Austin on April 12, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
As oil price crisis grips the globe, small Texas producers feel the ripple effects
Plummeting demand and an international price dispute have forced Texas oil producers to begin shutting wells. Full Story
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![Oil pumps during sunset.]()
Credit: iStock/Getty Images -
Texas regulators contemplating a reduction in oil production amid coronavirus crisis
A Texas Railroad Commission official said no decision has been made yet and the agency is looking into options. Full Story
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![A worker waits to load a piece of pipe, or casing, that will be lowered into the well at a Chesapeake Energy drill site in Dimmit County on the Eagle Ford Shale.]()
Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune -
Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton concedes Republican primary in surprising upset
Sitton was elected in 2014 to the three-member board, which oversees Texas' oil and gas industry. Jim Wright, who beat him in an upset, owns an oilfield waste services company. Full Story
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![Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton at a hearing in Austin on Oct. 10, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
"It's a joke": Flaring expert finds big problems in report from Texas oil and gas regulator
"It looks more like a political manifesto to me," a Texas A&M professor said about a report from the Railroad Commission of Texas. Full Story
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![A gas flare burns bright on a production site northeast of Andrews, Texas.]()
Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune -
Pipeline giant sues Railroad Commission, alleging lax oversight of natural gas flaring
A subsidiary of Tulsa-based Williams Cos. is suing Texas' oil and gas regulatory agency after it approved a request from Dallas-based Exco Operating Co. to burn off natural gas from wells in South Texas while they were hooked up to Williams' pipeline system. Full Story
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![Sign indicating the presence of poison gas in Pecos County, Texas.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Optimistic Democrats are lining up to run for Texas’ high courts in 2020
The depth of the bench for non-marquee statewide races, like the state’s two high courts and the Railroad Commission, is a measure of how high Democratic hopes have soared ahead of the 2020 election. Full Story
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![Judge Amy Clark Meachum kicks off her campaign for Texas Chief Justice at Threadgillâs in Austin on Oct. 29, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Texas signed off on the restoration of this old mine. Now a leaky landfill is contaminating groundwater.
Alcoa has put its shuttered Sandow Mine site on the market for $250 million, advertising it as a country paradise. Testing has found that groundwater under a landfill in the middle of the property is contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Full Story
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![The Alcoa power plant near Rockdale on August 1, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Big coal gave a tiny Texas town free land. There’s a major catch.
Sulphur Springs leaders say they want Luminant — Texas’ largest electricity generator — to leave in place a 120-foot-tall mound of excavated dirt at the site of a shuttered coal mine so they can build an amphitheater. But the soil contains potentially dangerous materials, according to state regulators. Full Story
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![A mound of toxic coal mine waste left by an energy company, Luminant, sits near farmland, homes and businesses in Sulphur Springs.]()
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune -
Dallas attorney Chrysta Castañeda to challenge Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton
Castañeda, a Democrat, is centering her 2020 campaign on the issue of flaring, or the burning of natural gas that companies do not move to market. Full Story
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![Chrysta Castañeda is the Democratic candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission.]()
Credit: Courtesy of candidate -
A creek flowing to the Colorado River turned black. Now the state has sued the alleged polluter.
Residents near Altair began complaining that Skull Creek reeked of chemicals. The Texas attorney general's office says a local company is to blame. Full Story
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![Contaminated black water flows through Skull Creek and crosses over a country road downstream from Inland Environmental & Remediation, Inc., near Columbus, Texas, on April 15, 2019.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Railroad commissioners voice doubts that Permian Basin flaring is more prevalent than reported
The Environmental Defense Fund concluded that oil producers burned off more natural gas than they reported to the state. But Texas officials expressed skepticism of those findings during a state Senate hearing Wednesday. Full Story
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![A gas flare burns bright on a production site northeast of Andrews, Texas.]()
Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune -
Report: Permian Basin oil producers flaring more natural gas than they told the state
An analysis of government satellite data by the Environmental Defense Fund shows that the amount of natural gas that energy companies burned off in 2017 is twice as high as what they reported to state regulators. Full Story
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![A flare burns on May 24, 2018, atop a drill pad on land near Carlsbad, N.M., that Wayne Smith leased for ranching before his death in October. The development covered seven times more acreage than the Bureau of Land Management said would be used, Smith said in May.]()
Credit: Robin Zielinski for the Center for Public Integrity -
Did Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick break the law by pushing out the agency director? The attorney general can't say.
Whether Christi Craddick violated the law last year in pushing the Texas Railroad Commission's executive director out of her post is "not a question we can resolve," Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in an opinion released Thursday. Full Story
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![Chairman Christi Craddick and Commissioner Ryan Sitton at a Texas Railroad Commission meeting in Austin on Oct. 10, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas regulator says "misunderstanding" is making millennials shun oilfield jobs
Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian told House lawmakers on Wednesday that the biggest threat to a burgeoning oil boom is "the acceptance of the politically-correct-driven environmental anti-oil and gas science." Full Story
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New state-funded sensors are tracking earthquakes across Texas
A new interactive website from state-funded researchers is tracking tremors across Texas – part of an effort to understand the link between earthquakes and oil and gas production. Full Story
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Hey, Texplainer: Did the Railroad Commission chairwoman fire its executive director?
After two members of the Railroad Commission's board sparred over the fate of the agency's executive director, questions arose about decision-making and transparency within the state agency. Full Story
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![Texas Railroad Commissioners Christi Craddick, Ryan Sitton and David Porter wait for their turn to testify before the Sunset Advisory Commission on Aug. 22, 2016.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
Texas railroad commissioner wants AG to weigh in on board chair's actions
Two days after Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton and the board's chair, Christi Craddick, clashed publicly at a state meeting, Sitton is asking Attorney General Ken Paxton to weigh in on his colleague's actions. Full Story
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![Texas Railroad Commissioners Christi Craddick, center, and Ryan Sitton, right, during a Sunset Advisory Committee hearing on Aug. 22, 2016.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
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