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Here at Earthworks, we are no strangers to playing defense. In fact, it’s what we do best. Over the past several years, Earthworks and partners have delayed almost every permit for polluting facilities we have worked on. This included four crude oil export terminals, multiple petrochemical facilities in the coastal bend and a Liquid Natural Gas terminal. What’s more, Texas is a critical place to play defense. That is because it’s the home turf of a massive oil and gas industry, with the majority of production originating from the Permian Basin – the largest petroleum-producing basin in the United States – spanning West Texas and parts of New Mexico.
We suspect the next few months could be chaotic. Republicans fought to the bitter end to nominate a Speaker and legislators filed more than 2,300 bills even before the session began. But one thing is certain, the way ahead will require a commitment to solidarity with our partners and frontline allies.
Here’s what we are thinking for the year to come.
Texas’s reputation as an industry-friendly, deeply Republican state went unshaken in 2024. Statewide turnout was 6% lower than in the 2020 election, an election year when mail-in ballots and a longer early voting period provided more opportunities for people to cast their vote. Over 7 million registered Texas voters either couldn’t or decided not to cast a vote this past November.
Regardless of the outcome of one election, however, we know that people everywhere and, especially Texans, need clean air and water and a just energy future. That’s why we’re committed to defense and long-term power building.
We will continue to work with community groups directly facing the impacts of oil and gas extraction to provide campaign support in a networked landscape. From the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, we are joining with frontline communities to delay and defeat dirty energy infrastructure projects and petrochemical facilities. We know that we are stronger as a united front and that’s why Earthworks serves and connects communities facing the impacts of all aspects of the oil and gas supply chain.
We are doubling down on local campaigns. Like the village of Jones Creek, which passed a resolution to ban oil and gas storage tank facilities in its community, other municipalities can do the same. When Federal pathways toward change close, we shift to support local organizing, apply pressure at a regional level, and continue to fight for the health and safety of communities by delaying pipelines and petrochemical facilities.
We are moving where momentum already exists. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has already committed to a State Implementation Plan (SIP) process to reduce methane pollution from the oil and gas industry. For the first time in history, Texas is seizing an opportunity to regulate methane and associated pollutants and reduce harm to the 5.3 million Texans who live within a half-mile threat radius of an oil and gas site. We will push for the speedy adoption of the most substantial plan possible to reduce methane emissions.
We are building solidarity with international partners. As Texas leads the nation in oil and gas exports, we will continue to work in coordination with advocates in countries that buy exported U.S. oil and gas. Global markets are increasingly demanding low-carbon intensity products. In August 2024, the European Commission passed new standards to quantify and reduce oil and gas emissions, including from all aspects of the supply chain for imported products. Texas companies must clean up their business to continue exporting to international markets like the EU.
We may not have picked up new allies in elected office to fight the oil and gas industry in either DC or Austin but we also know that the struggles for clean air and water are much bigger than a single election cycle. Many of the fights that Earthworks supports with our frontline partners are rooted in histories older than the state, and so we move forward in solidarity for a just energy future.
