Recently, a commentary written by the Carbon Neutral Coalition lauded the natural gas industry and especially its new technology of carbon capture, utilization and storage (Aug. 31). This new oil recovery process compresses CO2, which can be transported through pipelines or be injected into geological formations — in other words, underground.
Bloomberg reported in April 2022 that West Texas is poised to become “the earthquake capital of the world.” In the first three months of 2022 there have been 59 earthquakes topping magnitude 3.0 scale. The numbers of small tremors run into the thousands. A correlation has been found between drilling and seismic activity: Wastewater from the oil wells spews out and is injected back into the ground, which is the cheapest way for the industry to deal with disposal.
Recall that Oklahoma had the same earthquake problem a few years ago, but Oklahoma broke the cycle after regulators forced drillers to slow the pace of water disposal and haul it further away.
In addition to wastewater disposal, the oil/gas industry now wishes to have more tax credits under the guise of carbon capture, which also will store its emissions underground. So, we have a double whammy that the Carbon Neutral Coalition is proposing: more underground storage and waste for more earthquakes and pollution of our land and water — for their own profit.
Do we think that Texas regulatory agencies will do the same as Oklahoma to lessen or stop these recurring earthquakes? This is yet another reason to vote in the upcoming November elections and especially for Railroad Commission of Texas (which actually regulates the oil/gas industry).
Our health and the health of our environment depend on our votes. Diane Teter
Edinburg
Lawyers
criticized
When I was young, I wondered why lawyers were the butt of jokes, like being compared to used car salesmen. In my 20s, I studied religion and found out Pharisee lawyers were the law school lowlifes of Jesus’ day.
When I got divorced, I learned even more about the profession. Lawyers deliberately aggravate the opposing party in order to extend their filings and greatly enrich themselves at the expense of children.
Even later, I watched Donald Trump’s lawyers at work at the impeachment trials, attending to his business troubles, helping him with election “fraud” challenges and myriad other shady dealings.
Young lawyers today would do well to heed the warning given by an English father to his lawyer son, the First Earl of Clarendon. He asked his son to “shun the practice too common in that profession, of straining every point in favor of prerogative (power) and perverting so useful a science to the oppression of liberty.”
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Counting
untruths
In his letter to the editor on Sept. 14, Ernest Gorena listed some of the lies President Biden has supposedly said in his long career as a politician. Unfortunately, for those who love to read this kind of stuff, it was only a few measly paragraphs. Can you imagine him listing all the lies President Trump said in his four-year tenure? Hoo-boy, he could write a book!
Italo J. Zarate
Brownsville
