The bill filing deadline is less than a month away - March 9 to be precise - and there are a lot of good bills filed and awaiting committee referral. However, there still aren't sponsors for bills on two major problems facing Texas: methane pollution from oil and gas facilities and better storage tank standards to address failures during extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey (remember that?) and the Trinity River floods of 2015 (see photos from Marty Schladen of the El Paso Times in 2015).
Photo: Marty Schladen
Though there is a good bill filed to study additional controls on oil and gas faciltiies to reduce methane and other emissions (HB 225, Reynolds), methane flaring and venting has become a much bigger problem, especially in the Permian Basin in West Texas, where oil frackers don't capture it because it's not part of their business plans. Check out this video that shows just how bad it's getting for people living near it:
The Sierra Club has model legislation ready to share with a willing legislator. Someone needs to step up to the plate. Could that be your legislator? Give them a call as soon as this long weekend is over (or leave them a message today!), and let them know you you want to see bills to address methane pollution and better standards for oil and gas storage tanks!
You can find their office numbers using this easy look-up tool here.