\u201cStarting first thing in the morning, talk about the stench. Then you call the state and nothing happens,\u201d Dermish said. \u201cThey do absolutely nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
His neighbor Lupe Campos, who worked in the oil fields for more than three decades, lives three blocks from a flare. Toxic hydrogen sulfide escapes from nearby wells, giving the air the smell of \u201cburnt rotten eggs,\u201d Campos said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250520_TexasFlaring_ProPublica-7c-731x1024.jpg\"\/)
Hakim Dermish has for years urged Texas oil and gas regulatory agencies to more closely monitor the flares near Catarina. Credit: Christopher Lee for ProPublica<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250520_TexasFlaring_ProPublica-20c-731x1024.jpg\"\/)
Lupe Campos, Dermish\u2019s neighbor, lives three blocks from a flare. Credit: Christopher Lee for ProPublica<\/p>\n
While working to expand the nation\u2019s oil and gas production, President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has maintained that drilling in the U.S. is cleaner than in other countries due to tighter environmental oversight. To mark Earth Day, for example, the White House boasted<\/a> in a statement that increased natural gas exports meant the U.S. would be \u201csharing cleaner energy with allies\u201d and \u201creducing global emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n But Texas, the heart of America\u2019s oil and gas industry, tells a different story.<\/p>\n Texas regulators tout their efforts to curtail oil field emissions by requiring drillers to obtain permits to release or burn gas from their wells.<\/p>\n Yet a first-of-its-kind analysis of permit applications to the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state\u2019s main oil and gas regulator, reveals a rubber-stamp system that allows drillers to emit vast amounts of natural gas into the atmosphere. Over 40 months\u2014from May 2021 to September 2024\u2014oil companies applied for more than 12,000 flaring and venting permits, while the Railroad Commission rejected just 53 of them, a 99.6 percent approval rate, according to the data.<\/p>\n Natural gas is composed mostly of climate-warming methane but also contains other gases<\/a> such as hydrogen sulfide, which is deadly at high concentrations<\/a>. Gas escapes as wells are drilled and before infrastructure is in place to capture it. It also can be intentionally released if pressure in the system poses a safety risk or if capturing and transporting it to be sold is not profitable. Typically, drillers burn the gas they don\u2019t capture, converting the methane to carbon dioxide, a less potent greenhouse gas, in a process called flaring. Sometimes, they release the gas without burning it, in a process called venting.<\/p>\n The permit applications showed oil companies requested to flare or vent more than 195 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, enough to power more than 3 million homes and generate millions of dollars of tax revenue had the gas been captured. Those emissions would have a climate-warming impact roughly equivalent to 27 gas-fired power plants operating year-round, even if the flares burned every molecule of methane released from the wells.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a gargantuan amount of emissions,\u201d said Jack McDonald, senior analyst of energy policy and science for the environmental group Oilfield Witness. \u201cBecause so much of this gas is methane and so much of it is either incompletely combusted or not combusted at all through the venting process, we see a huge climate impact.\u201d<\/p>\n Oilfield Witness gathered and studied the Railroad Commission data on exemptions to the state\u2019s flaring rules<\/a> and shared it with Inside Climate News and ProPublica. The news organizations verified the data, including by soliciting input from professors at universities in Texas.<\/p>\n Railroad Commission spokesperson R.J. DeSilva said in a statement that Texas has made \u201csignificant progress\u201d in addressing methane emissions. Companies must provide evidence that flaring is necessary, and, when approving permits, the agency follows all applicable rules, he said. \u201cIf an application lacks sufficient justification, it is returned with comments for clarification.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am proud of the progress that has been made to reduce the waste of our natural resources,\u201d Jim Wright, chair of the Railroad Commission, said in a statement, adding that \u201cthere is always room for further improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n The analysis likely overstates emissions, since the near-guarantee that regulators will approve a permit gives companies an incentive to request authorization for amounts larger than they intend to emit to ensure they\u2019re in compliance. For example, operators in four Texas counties flared about 70 percent of the volume of gas that their permits allowed<\/a>, according to a recent effort to compare the state\u2019s flaring data to information collected via satellite. And the Railroad Commission sometimes approves flaring smaller volumes than requested, which is not captured in the data.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Texas oil and natural gas industry is committed to ongoing progress in reducing flaring and methane emissions while continuing to meet the ever-growing demand for reliable oil and natural gas across the globe,\u201d Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, told Inside Climate News and ProPublica in a statement.<\/p>\n Residents of communities surrounded by flares and leaking wells, like Catarina, want the state and the industry to do more to control oil field emissions. The Railroad Commission approved eight flares within 5 miles of the town during the study period and 280 across surrounding Dimmit County, according to agency data.<\/p>\n The danger posed by the gas became impossible to ignore on March 27, as a 30-inch steel pipeline a half-mile from Catarina failed. The rupture blasted more than 23 million cubic feet of gas into the air, as much as is used in 365 homes in a year, according to data the company that owns the pipeline, Energy Transfer, reported to the Railroad Commission.<\/p>\n Dermish recorded the chaos with his cellphone. \u201cThe house is shaking,\u201d he says in the video as the escaping gas roars, its concussions jostling the camera.<\/p>\n Fearing for their safety, he and his wife evacuated, heading to a neighboring town for the day. After they returned home that evening, he called the sheriff to ask what had happened. During the conversation, Dermish could feel the gas causing him to slur his words. The next morning, Dermish noticed new gas flares, presumably lit to release pressure in the pipeline network by burning excess gas. A cellphone video he recorded shows a towering column of flame, taller than a nearby telephone pole, billowing and rippling.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you ever seen \u2018Lord of the Rings\u2019? Do you remember the Fire of Mordor?\u201d Dermish said in an interview. \u201cThat\u2019s what we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n An incident report submitted to the state by Energy Transfer attributed the pipeline failure to a technician\u2019s errors. Without objection from the Railroad Commission, the pipeline was repaired and back in service three days later. The agency did not assess Energy Transfer with a violation or a fine.<\/p>\n Energy Transfer did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n After more than two decades in Catarina, Dermish and his wife are planning to move away. \u201cIt\u2019s just too dangerous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Is American Oil and Gas Cleaner?<\/p>\n While the Trump administration characterizes American oil and gas as cleaner than fossil fuels from other countries, it has rolled back rules regulating methane.<\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency has, under Trump, delayed implementing previously finalized rules<\/a> that would\u2019ve mandated that the industry monitor for methane leaks and address them. He and Republicans in Congress also repealed the country\u2019s first-ever tax on methane<\/a>. And in June, Trump revoked a Biden administration guidance document<\/a> laying out how companies should comply with a law aimed at reducing methane leaks from pipelines.<\/p>\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n As the nation\u2019s highest-producing oil and gas state, Texas is a key barometer of the U.S. regulatory environment and whether it has created a cleaner fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n The Permian Basin\u2014the country\u2019s largest oil field, which straddles the Texas-New Mexico border\u2014was estimated by a 2024 study<\/a> to emit the second-most methane of any oil field in the world.<\/p>\n The industry disputes that finding, pointing to a June report from S&P Global Commodity Insights<\/a> that found that the rate of methane emissions in the Permian Basin dropped 29 percent between 2023 and 2024. \u201cMethane emissions management\u201d is increasingly a part of the industry\u2019s operations, Raoul LeBlanc, a vice president at S&P, said in a statement announcing the findings. However, S&P\u2019s report acknowledged that satellite data showed a much more modest reduction of 4 percent, contradicting the company\u2019s own data, which was collected by airplane.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can say confidently that there is no evidence that methane emissions from the Permian Basin are low,\u201d said Steven Hamburg, who studies methane as the Environmental Defense Fund\u2019s chief scientist.<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 Attempt to Rein In Flaring<\/p>\n In Texas, State Rule 32 prohibits flaring and venting gas at wells<\/a>, except under a few specific conditions: while the well is being drilled, during the first 10 days after the well is completed and when necessary to ensure safety. Otherwise, drillers must seek an exception.<\/p>\n The Railroad Commission changed the application process for these exemptions in 2020 and issued new guidance in 2021. Operators would have to explain why they could not suspend drilling to avoid flaring and indicate that they had investigated all options for using the gas before flaring.<\/p>\n Oilfield Witness gathered all exemption requests since 2021, which showed the agency repeatedly approving permits that failed to comply with its guidelines. In many cases, oil companies asked to flare indefinitely or didn\u2019t justify why they needed to flare, leaving blank the section of the application asking why the exemption was needed.<\/p>\n Capturing the gas requires an expensive system of pipelines, compressors and other infrastructure that can cost more than the gas is worth<\/a>. In their permit applications, companies cite this reality, often listing financial considerations as the reason for seeking exemptions, Oilfield Witness found. These were nearly always approved, even though the agency wrote that finances were an insufficient explanation in a presentation on the permitting process<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Railroad Commission seems very interested in devolving decision-making processes to the companies themselves,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n The data also showed that nearly 90 percent of the approved permit applications were backdated, retroactively giving permission for flares that were already burning. Oil companies typically asked the Railroad Commission for permission to flare 10 days after they had already burned the gas.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said that when the commission revamped its guidelines in 2020, it allowed a longer period in which companies could file for a permit after they\u2019d already started to flare. Even so, nearly 900 of the permits were applied for after the updated filing window and still accepted by the agency.<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n The Railroad Commission also approved more than 7,000 flares within areas where the gas reservoir being drilled was known to be high in hydrogen sulfide, increasing the likelihood that the toxic gas could escape into the air. Of those flares, 600 were within a mile of a residence, the agency\u2019s data showed.<\/p>\n Minimizing flaring permits is \u201cnot a priority in any sense\u201d for the Railroad Commission, said Gunnar Schade, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. \u201cThe priority is oil produced, and that means revenue for the state. Oil and gas is a priority, so who cares about the flaring?\u201d<\/p>\n Overstating the Progress<\/p>\n The Railroad Commission and the state\u2019s oil industry trumpet their work to reduce flaring. The agency points to state data<\/a> showing flaring rates dropping dramatically, specifically since 2019<\/a>. And the Texas Oil and Gas Association announced in early August<\/a> that drillers in the Permian Basin \u201cslashed methane emission intensity by more than half in just two years.\u201d<\/p>\n But such claims are misleading, according to experts such as David DiCarlo, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin\u2019s petroleum engineering school. Using 2019 as a starting point leaves a false impression that there\u2019s been a sharp decline, he said, as methane emissions that year were staggeringly high due to booming production and inadequate pipeline capacity to gather the gas.<\/p>\n DeSilva, the Railroad Commission\u2019s spokesperson, defended using 2019 as the baseline because \u201cabout five years ago we began taking proactive steps to reduce flaring in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking a longer view shows that a median of 2.2 percent of gas at Texas oil wells was flared or vented over the past decade, according to a review of state data by Inside Climate News and ProPublica. (Flaring at gas wells is rare because those sites have the necessary pipeline infrastructure in place to collect the gas.) That figure hovered just north of 2 percent in the most recently available data, representing a much smaller drop than the state and industry claim. The industry still hasn\u2019t built sufficient pipeline networks to capture gas at oil wells, so, as production rises, so does flaring and venting.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can\u2019t get it below 2 percent because they keep drilling,\u201d DiCarlo said. Since emissions are highest when a well is being drilled, overall emissions will remain high as long as the industry is drilling new wells. \u201cThat\u2019s just the nature of the beast.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the largest beneficiaries of the state\u2019s lax permitting system was an oil company called Endeavor Energy Resources. More than half the approved permanent flaring exemptions went to Endeavor, which merged with the $40 billion Diamondback Energy in September 2024. Endeavor also applied for the longest flaring permit \u2014 6,300 days, or more than 17 years. The Railroad Commission approved the permit without shortening its duration.<\/p>\n Diamondback Energy did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The industry has simultaneously claimed that it is addressing methane while bristling at oversight.<\/p>\n Steven Pruett is the president and CEO of Elevation Resources, a Permian Basin oil company, and the immediate past chair of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, one of the industry\u2019s main trade groups. His company saw a 2,408 percent increase in flaring immediately following new wells being drilled and a 692 percent increase in flaring overall in 2023, according to emails unearthed by environmental watchdog organization Fieldnotes<\/a> and shared with Inside Climate News and ProPublica. In the email exchange with University of Texas faculty who were preparing a grant application for a federal methane-reduction program, Pruett blamed the increases on inadequate infrastructure to capture the gas.<\/p>\n Natural gas, as seen through a specialized camera that captures infrared energy, streams out of a Diamondback Energy facility near Midland, Texas, in 2023. Credit: Courtesy of Oilfield Witness<\/p>\n Just weeks later, Pruett participated in a tour of the oil field alongside EPA staff, where he echoed the claim<\/a> that the American oil and gas industry is cleaner than others and that drilling companies were complying with efforts to reduce emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n During his term at the helm of the national trade group, it spearheaded multiple lawsuits against the EPA over the government\u2019s methane rules.<\/p>\n Pruett did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cA Constant Roar\u201d<\/p>\n Those opposed to flaring face long odds in halting the practice, even in rare instances when the Railroad Commission hears objections.<\/p>\n Consider the experience of Tom Pohlman, then sheriff of Fisher County, who had a flare burning next to his home in the Texas Panhandle starting in October 2023. The driller responsible for it, Patton Exploration, solicited companies to extend a pipeline to the oil well to capture the gas and evaluated whether the gas could be used to mine bitcoin. But by July 2024, it still had no deal, so the company sought another permit to continue flaring up to 1 million cubic feet of gas per day for 18 months. \u201cPatton is diligently pursuing every avenue possible to find a solution, but still needs more time,\u201d the company wrote in its application.<\/p>\n When Pohlman learned that Patton Exploration had applied for a new permit, he and his neighbors urged the Railroad Commission to deny it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sound that comes from the flame is a constant roar that we can hear throughout our property both day and night,\u201d the neighbors wrote in their objection. \u201cThere is no peace and quiet since the day of its ignition.\u201d<\/p>\n In September 2024, Pohlman became one of the few people to officially challenge a flaring permit in Texas, as he and Patton Exploration representatives went head-to-head in a hearing before a Railroad Commission administrative law judge.<\/p>\n \u201cFor approximately 20 of my residents in this area, it completely lights up their yard and everything else,\u201d Pohlman said, telling the judge that the flare was 45 feet high. \u201cI just need liveability for this neighborhood. We\u2019ve had nothing but issues here.\u201d<\/p>\n Patton Exploration\u2019s lawyer, David Gross, acknowledged the neighbors\u2019 frustrations but emphasized the importance of keeping the well pumping.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t produce the oil without producing the gas,\u201d he told the judge. \u201cIt\u2019s the public policy of Texas that the recoverable oil and gas in the state\u2019s reservoirs be recovered because it is in the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, the three elected members of the Railroad Commission voted unanimously to approve the permit and allow flaring for another 12 months.<\/p>\n ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches<\/a>, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.<\/p>\n \t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n Thank you,<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tReporter, El Paso, Texas<\/p>\n Martha Pskowski covers climate change and the environment in Texas from her base in El Paso. She was previously an environmental reporter at the El Paso Times. She began her career as a freelance journalist in Mexico, reporting for outlets including The Guardian and Yale E360. Martha has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College and a master\u2019s degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies from New York University. She is a former Fulbright research fellow in Mexico. Martha can be reached on Signal at psskow.33<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is a collaboration between Inside Climate News and ProPublica. Hakim Dermish moved to the small South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-131226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250520_TexasFlaring_ProPublica-25-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Between](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250520_TexasFlaring_ProPublica-24.jpg\"\/)
Between May 2021 and September 2024, state regulators approved 280 permits to burn or vent natural gas in Dimmit County, which is home to the small town of Catarina and its 75 residents. Credit: Christopher Lee for ProPublica<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CatarinaTexasFlaring700px.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250520_TexasFlaring_ProPublica-1.jpg\"\/)
Companies dispose of oil field waste in this growing dump in Catarina. Credit: Christopher Lee for ProPublica<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TexasGasFlaringChart700px.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250520_TexasFlaring_ProPublica-26.jpg\"\/)
A flare lights up the night sky in Catarina. Credit: Christopher Lee for ProPublica<\/p>\n![\"Martha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/pskowski-02-300x300.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMartha Pskowski\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n