An advocacy group funded by one of the nation’s largest oil and gas trade groups called its members in Texas earlier this month, offering to help them draft and practice giving comments to EPA in favor of granting Texas top authority over carbon storage wells.
It may have worked. Ultimately, hundreds of people signed up to offer public comment at the virtual public hearing Thursday, with well over half of those who talked sounding similar notes in favor of Texas overseeing Class VI wells, which are used to store carbon dioxide underground via geologic sequestration.
That frustrated efforts from Texas CCS Community Advocacy Coalition, a group of advocates and environmentalists trying to organize against the shift in authority. Few of their members were able to sign up, they said, because the slots to speak had already been filled.
The work by both groups is shedding light on grassroots advocacy efforts and how industry groups and environmental nonprofits alike are each mobilizing people for public comment. Texas’ bid to secure top authority over Class VI wells has long proved polarizing, with divisions likely only to deepen as EPA comes closer to making a final decision.
