Texas

Energy and Environment Reporting for Texas

Join Us in Odessa Tonight to Talk About the Drilling Boom in West Texas

A Permian Basin oil rig.

Photo by Mose Buchele

A Permian Basin oil rig.

West Texas is booming again — a major increase in oil and gas drilling is bringing jobs, prosperity and new development in the region. But it’s also having an impact on roads, water and the culture of West Texas. So please join us if you can tonight, Tuesday, August 13th, at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa, at a special forum to discuss these issues.

StateImpact Texas and KXWT West Texas Public Radio will host a panel discussion and community forum tonight, ‘Drilling Down: How Oil and Gas Exploration is Affecting Our Land, Water and Community.’

Our panel will consist of energy industry experts and community representatives to discuss the impact of oil and gas drilling in West Texas. The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Cooper Auditorium in the Science and Technology building at UTPB. The public is invited to ask questions of the panel as part of the community forum.

We’ll discuss how drilling is changing West Texas, from its impact on the economy, to the strain on roads and housing, to balancing water demands.

The panelists include: Kirk Edwards, President of Las Colinas Energy Partners; Libby Campbell, Executive Director of the West Texas Food Bank; Gil Van Deventer, Senior Hydrologist at Trident Environmental; W. Hoxie Smith, director of Midland College’s Petroleum Professional Development Center; and Paul Weatherby, District Manager for the Middle Pecos Groundwater District in Fort Stockton. The panel will be moderated by Terrence Henry of KUT’s StateImpact Texas.

Please join us tonight for this community event. You can find more information and RSVP on Facebook or by emailing info@kxwt.org.

When: 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Where: Cooper Auditorium in the Science and Technology building on the University of Texas Permian Basin campus (4901 E. University, Odessa)

This event is sponsored by the UT Energy Institute and West Texas Public Radio KXWT 91.3, in association with the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute, Marfa Public Radio KRTS 93.5, and Austin’s KUT News 90.5.

StateImpact Texas is also hitting the road week, with Midland-Odessa as the first stop on an occasional road tour of the state. Over the next few months, we’ll travel to different regions of the state to engage with communities and hear from locals about the stories that should be covered, and to gauge the impact of energy and environmental policy in the place where people feel it most – home.

You can follow along in various ways: we’ll be posting to Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter — and of course, here to the website — from the road.

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