After Eight Toxic Well Blowouts Since 12/23, TX Rep Proposes Tax To Fund Cleanup, W. Vote Coming A Year From Now
And you have to ask - just how fucked up do things have to be for a Republican state rep from Odessa to propose this?
ODESSA — A West Texas lawmaker wants to provide a financial boost to clean up environmental damage caused by a century of oil and gas production that made Texas one of the world’s leading energy producers. State Rep. Brooks Landgraf, an Odessa Republican, introduced a set of bills this week that would provide millions of dollars to the state to seal abandoned wells, which, in some instances, are causing massive blowouts of toxic liquid and creating pools of wastewater. To become law, the package needs approval from both legislative chambers, the governor and voters in the fall of 2025.
Currently, taxes collected from oil and gas companies are divided among the state’s savings account, often known as the “rainy day fund,” schools and highways. If enacted, the legislative package would largely reallocate the money that goes to the state’s savings account — which currently sits at $21 billion — to new spending. It would set aside 1% of all taxes from oil and gas production to plug the wells, an effort overseen by the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. Another 1% would go to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to bolster emission reduction efforts. The sweeping rewrite of the state’s severance tax laws, which Landgraf is calling Texas STRONG, also directs up to $500 million for infrastructure repairs, expanding emergency, health care, and educational services and workforce development programs. That money would be distributed through grant programs to counties where oil and gas production is prolific.
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In November, the agency asked for an additional $100 million — almost half of its entire two-year budget. Danny Sorrells, the commission’s executive director, said in a letter that the agency's $226 million budget was not enough to address the growing cost of plugging leaking and erupting wells in the state’s oil fields. Sorrells, who asked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan to consider their request, said it would use the money to address actively leaking wells and prevent emergencies.
The commission uses a priority system to determine which wells to plug first. Priority 1 wells pose environmental, economic and safety risks — wells it would typically seal first. However, Sorrells said the commission was spending more money cleaning up uncontrolled flows of water erupting from abandoned wells, an event that constitutes an emergency. Sorrells said it has become unsustainable. “These high-priority wells need to be taken care of before they themselves become emergency wells,” he said.
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https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/18/west-texas-oil-gas-well-clean-up-legislation/
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