Jan. 5, James Coleman, associate professor at SMU Dallas with a specialty in energy law at Dedman School of Law in Dallas, for a piece encouraging The Texas Railroad Commission to tweak regulations to curb wasteful practices – “burning off” an over-abundance of natural gas at an alarming rate. Published in the Dallas Morning News: http://bit.ly/2N1HWov
By James Coleman
Texas is now the center of history’s biggest oil and gas boom. This boom, like past booms, is cementing the U.S. as the world’s superpower. But as in those earlier booms, our regulators may need to slow production slightly to preserve our natural resources and the health of our oil industry.
Texas producers are now draining so much oil and natural gas that there aren’t enough purchasers to use all of the gas. Oil and gas often come from the same well. The industry sells the oil but cannot build pipelines fast enough to get all the new gas production to distant gas consumers. As a result, producers are burning off, or flaring, more and more gas — wasting this clean burning gas, which is prized by consumers and industry around the world. . .
Continue reading “The Texas Railroad Commission must tap the brakes on oil and gas production”