Townspeople came to the meeting looking for answers. They left disappointed.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was legally justified in issuing — and later withdrawing — an emergency order against a Fort Worth-based driller following a 2010 complaint of groundwater contamination in North Texas, the agency’s internal watchdog said in a report released Tuesday. But questions linger the about the source of the contamination, it added. The […]

View North Texas Earthquakes in a larger map A map of recent earthquakes (in red) and oil and gas wastewater disposal wells outside of Fort Worth. Active disposal wells are in green; inactive wells are in yellow. Map by Michael Marks/Terrence Henry Two more earthquakes struck near the town of Azle outside of Fort Worth […]

America’s oil and gas boom was brought on by hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking” and horizontal drilling. These methods of drilling, developed in Texas, unleashed historic amounts of fossil fuels in previously inaccessible shale formations across the country. But recent research from the University of Texas suggests that many wells using these techniques will see a […]

This story was produced by member station KXWT. The energy boom in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico is driving one of the nation’s fastest growing regional economies. But growth is tied to the price of oil and some prominent energy analysts suggest the price of crude will fall in 2014. Oil wells operating round the clock […]

From KERA News: The Dallas City Council passed a new, more restrictive gas drilling ordinance this afternoon. It includes a 1,500-foot setback from homes, businesses, schools and other so-called protected uses. An 11th hour amendment was approved that requires a tougher two-thirds majority council vote to reduce the setback. The council approved the ordinance 9-6, […]

Railroad Commission, The State’s Oil and Gas Regulator, Says No Changes Needed After Latest Earthquake Swarm

A lot was made this week of numbers showing record-breaking numbers for daily oil production in Texas. Those figures, from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). In September, the most recent month for the data, drillers in Texas pulled about 2.7 million barrels of oil a day from the earth, most of it from the state’s two […]

View North Texas Earthquakes in a larger map A map of recent earthquakes (in red) and oil and gas wastewater disposal wells outside of Fort Worth. Active disposal wells are in green; inactive wells are in yellow. Map by Michael Marks/Terrence Henry UPDATE: Another earthquake, magnitude 2.7, hit two miles north of Azle, Texas at […]

Fourteen earthquakes in just a few weeks, the biggest a magnitude 3.6. That’s what small towns like Azle and Springtown Northwest of Fort Worth have had to deal with recently.