Watchdog: 69-84% of Texas methane flares are unpermitted

Oil producers are burning off gas in the largest oil field in the United States without required Texas state permits, the environmental group Earthworks said in a report.

In the report, Flaring in Texas: a comprehensive government failure — What the Railroad Commission doesn’t track, it can’t govern, the watchdog compared the observed flares from oil and gas site flyovers against the state regulator’s flaring permitting database; in which, they concluded that 69-84 percent of the observed methane gas flares were unpermitted.

“Flaring can result in health problems for people living in proximity because flares also release toxic volatile organic compounds like benzene. Pregnant women who live near flares have as much as 50 percent greater chance of premature birth. Living in proximity to flares is linked to eye, nose, and throat irritation, respiratory problems, nausea, headaches, and dizziness,” said the agency in a press release.

Energy producers flare gas  when they cannot transport the gas to consumers. It is a process that reduces, but doesn't eliminate, methane emissions.