Hard data on drilling
Regarding “Thumbs up, down” (Page A23, Saturday), the only “spinmeisters” on Texas ozone are the anti-drilling groups who refuse to accept the facts. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has the most extensive air-monitoring network in the Barnett Shale region of North Texas. The data show that oil and gas development contribute no more than 1.8 parts per billion to area ozone levels. You could decimate the economy by shutting down North Texas oil and gas development entirely and the environmental “benefits” would be imperceptible.
Similarly, in South Texas, Eagle Ford Shale development contributes just 3 percent of the San Antonio area’s total emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, the two main ozone precursors.
Meanwhile, power plants in the United States are now using more natural gas, which has slashed emissions of greenhouse gases and local pollutants. Energy-related carbon emissions in the U.S. are at a quarter-century low, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says “natural gas plays a key role in our nation’s clean energy future.”
Hillary Clinton, whom the Houston Chronicle has endorsed for president, even touts how clean-burning natural gas helped prevent “more than 100,000 asthma attacks in 2015 alone.”
It’s unsurprising that environmental activists who want to ban Texas oil and gas production would cook up another report suggesting health problems from drilling. Thankfully, hard data tell a different story. Steve Everley, spokesman, North Texans for Natural Gas, Dallas.