MIDLAND, Texas _ Environmental activist Sharon Wilson knows what she's likely to get from her regular trips to the Permian Basin: a headache and sore throat from the fumes and a dark mood from the bleak industrial landscape. Still, she returns, armed with more than $100,000 worth of camera equipment and righteous anger over what few people see in the heart of the U.S. oil industry.
Wilson, a senior organizer for the environmental group Earthworks and a longtime critic of fracking, is working to prove that those invisible emissions are worse than originally thought. The impact of those gases ranges from exacerbating global climate change to polluting the air.
"Right now, the Permian Basin is the most important place on earth to show what's happening, and what we have to stop," Wilson said, referring to oil and gas drilling.
Month after month, Wilson, 66, records infrared video of oil and gas facilities that she says are spewing methane and other hydrocarbons into the air. Some of the emissions are permitted by state law, some are forgiven as accidents and some are noted as violations.
It's a job, Wilson says, that regulators have all but abdicated. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has just four air monitors in the Permian Basin, which includes all or parts of 61 counties. Most emissions data is industry-reported.
Alan Septoff, an Earthworks spokesman, described the Texas approach as "drill and then regulate when possible."
"There's no one out there trying to quantify this," he said.
State environmental officials say they are effective at monitoring emissions from Texas' vast oil and gas industry.
"TCEQ utilizes a broad range of resources to enable and require the regulated universe to comply with environmental rules," agency spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said in an email.
She said the TCEQ "utilizes innovative technology," including cameras like Wilson's, and also hires private contractors for aerial surveys that help with investigations.
And while Morrow said the agency does accept "citizen-collected evidence," regulators can't vouch for the quality of the data.
Oil and gas companies say they have made progress in reducing pollution. Mostly, industry executives acknowledge climate change as a man-made threat that needs to be addressed.
That hasn't convinced Wilson and Earthworks, who say the talk isn't backed up by action. They say they hope to persuade the public and decision-makers that the nation has stumbled in its efforts to control greenhouse gases.
With each well site, gas-processing plant and compressor station, they want to build their case for stronger regulations against an industry intertwined with Texas' government, history and economy.
"I would argue we are at the point where rational people are increasingly considering climate change as an existential issue," Septoff said. "Not just environmentalists."
