Texas Oil and Gas Agency Investigating 5.4 Magnitude Earthquake in West Texas, the Largest in Three DecadesInside Climate NewsMedia Coverage

Virginia Palacios, director of Commission Shift, a Railroad Commission watchdog group, said about 600 new injection wells were permitted in Texas in the 12 months before August, 400 of them in the Permian Basin of West Texas. Reviews of permit applications center on possible impacts to groundwater, she said. “Wastewater disposal companies are some of the top contributors to railroad commissioners’ campaigns,” she said.