Democratic Congressmen from Texas Joaquin Castro and Lloyd Doggett wrote to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency advising the agency to refuse a Texas state request to self-regulate the carbon-capture industry in the state “can’t be trusted,” Bloomberg reports.
The Congressmen specifically cited the Texas Railroad Commission, which despite its name, doesn’t regulate the railroads in the state. Instead, the TRC is the state regulator for the Texas energy sector, headed by three elected commissioners. Texas seeks the status held by North Dakota and Wyoming, which are certified to regulate the carbon capture operations in their states.
“The Railroad Commission of Texas can’t be trusted to uphold the standards that protect health and safety in communities with carbon capture infrastructure,” Castro said in a statement. “Moreover, Texas regulators are unwilling to meet their existing obligations to plug abandoned oil wells. The EPA must not give the commission more oversight over carbon storage wells and related infrastructure, which are disproportionately located in communities of color already exposed to dangerous levels of pollution.”