In a recent The Center Square article, TXOGA president Todd Staples emphasized the importance of recognizing the progress the Texas oil and natural gas industry is making in reducing emissions and improving environmental performance, especially in light of the federal government’s recent actions to aggressively develop new and burdensome regulations that would negatively impact the oil and natural gas that is produced in the Permian.

The Texas oil and natural gas industry already has been “actively implementing measures to identify and lower emissions,” Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, told The Center Square.

“These efforts are dramatically improving environmental performance, including improving air quality in West Texas,” Staples said. “Domestic oil and natural gas produced in the United States, and largely right here in Texas, is the cleanest in the world. At a time when the Administration should be working with the industry to unleash America’s energy potential,” it’s “making moves that ignore and even discourage progress while creating uncertainty that could constrain the energy development the nation and the world needs.”

He also points out that methane emissions intensity in the Permian Basin declined nearly 70% since 2011 while oil and natural gas production increased over the same time period by over 320%. The flaring rate in the Permian Basin in Texas is also at a record low, he notes, after the U.S. has seen a 46% reduction in flaring intensity over the last decade.