Tomlinson: Inept energy regulators want to oversee climate change tech

Foul black water has erupted from another West Texas well in the same area as one that flowed toxic water for weeks and inspired a controversial no-fly zone in December.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian speaks during a panel discussion at the Empower, a bitcoin mining event in 2022 in Houston.

Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright, right, says the proposed rules for "oilfield waste disposal" will be good for all Texans, not just industry as critics have claimed. Fellow Commissioners Christi Craddick, the commission's chair, and Wayne Christian look on.

A Chevron worker walks up a standard drilling rig that will be drilling its first onshore test well for the Bayou Bend carbon capture project in the Winnie area. It is expected to have the capacity to store more than 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in underground geologic structures.

Foxes have no problem taking charge of the hen house; only the chickens think their lives are more important than their guardian’s nutritional needs.

Texas’s top energy regulators brag about how much they do for the oil and natural gas industry. Now, the three-member Texas Railroad Commission wants primary authority over experimental and dangerous underground carbon dioxide storage facilities that are intended to solve a problem they deny is real.

The bold request by one of the nation’s most morally compromised elected bodies demonstrates the commission’s arrogance as it fails to protect citizens from zombie wells, hazardous oil field waste and exploitative fossil fuel........

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