Torchlight Energy Resources Isn't Going Away

USGS map shows Monday's quake centered 40 miles north of Oklahoma City. Click image to enlarge.

Two pieces of bad news for environmentalists on the fracking front just a few miles from the El Paso County line: Torchlight Officials “Elated” By Test Well Results – Company Seeks Partner to Develop “Major New Oil Field”. That's the headline and story from the Hudspeth County Herald less than two weeks ago. Now this from a stock risk assessment news site: Torchlight Energy - A NewCo Turnaround Story That's Been Derisked. 

In short: Torchlight has solved its financial problems and they have struck paydirt at their first test well just over the hill from Hueco Tanks. That's the first test well. They anticipate 2,499 more to go and they are seeking help from bigger frackers.

Keep this information in mind as you read about Monday's 4.0+ earthquakes in Oklahoma.


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Big Oil and Their Politicians Ignore the Will of the People

Torchlight Energy Resources begins drilling in pristine environment of Hudspeth County only miles from El Paso.

[Below is a letter to the editor of the El Paso Times. It was run under the title of "Politicians Protect Fracking, Hurt Communities". The letter is from Ho Baron, political activist and sculpturist.]


Oil and gas fracking is a dirty drilling practice contaminating soil and water, inducing earthquakes, polluting the air and causing numerous health problems.

When Denton’s city council banned local fracking, the industry successfully lobbied the Texas government to pass House Bill 40. With $5.5 million contributed to legislators’ campaigns, Big Oil bribed our Republican Texas government to prohibit cities from banning fracking.

Though Republicans continually fight for state’s rights, they are eliminating long established property laws and community rights.

Utilizing our city water, fracking operations have begun drilling 10 miles east of the El Paso in Hudspeth County. Ironically, the University of Texas system leased the land to the frackers who project drillng 2500 wells in Hudspeth County.

Industry profits therefore have priority over our environment, endangering El Paso/Juarez lives and the future of our communities. Meanwhile, locals, who fought for years to rid El Paso of Asarco, have been hesitant to condemn this far worse impending threat.

Historically, interrelated factors contributing to societal collapses have been population, climate, water, agriculture and energy.  Societal failures often stem from the exploitive elites, selfishly stretching resources for personal profit. Lacking foresight, they believe themselves immune from the consequences of their actions.

Fracking has come to West Texas, and it’s so representative of the chokehold that corporations, the super rich, and the Republican Party have on our future.

Another Carlsbad NM Next to El Paso?

This is a Google Earth image of the once pristine land near Carlsbad. Do we want Otero Mesa/Diablo Plateau to look like this? Click image to enlarge. 

If Torchlight Energy Resources successfully drills all of the 172,000 acres on the Otero Mesa/Diablo Plateau, Hudspeth County will look like land around Carlsbad, New Mexico which once was pristine. Watch Torchlight's own slideshow of maps HERE to see just how big that 172,000 acres is and how close to El Paso.

Spudding then Fracking?

Sad but true. Read it and weep. Here's the story:

Torchlight Energy Begins Drilling First Well in Its Orogrande Project

EPWU to Import Water from Hudspeth County

Click on image to enlarge.

It's not just drilling for oil that is going on in Hudspeth County. EPWU is drilling for water near McNary to import to El Paso.

This is a good time to read a Richard Parker's op-ed piece in the New York Times: The Southwestern Water Wars: How Drought Is Producing Tensions in Texas.

Sign and Share the Petition against Fracking next to El Paso

Map taken from El Paso Inc., Searching for Shale Oil in Hudspeth County, Edgar Gonzalez, graphic artist. Note that the "prospect" is just over the hill literally from Hueco Tanks. Click on the image to enlarge.

Of the 172,000 acres Torchlight Energy Resources has leased for fracking in Hudspeth County next to El Paso, most of the land is owned by the University of Texas System. Click on the image to enlarge. 

Stop Fracking next to El Paso, Texas

Sign and Share the Petition

Fracking endangers the health, safety and welfare of people, pollutes the air and ground, results in rising crime and social and medical costs, utterly destroys ecosystems and permanently contaminates underground aquifers with toxic compounds and consumes billions of gallons of water. Yet, just a few minutes away from the city limits of El Paso, Texas a major metropolitan area of 675,000 people, and a few miles from the farming community of Dell City, Texas, the University of Texas System has leased over a hundred thousand acres to Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. for the sole purpose of fracking. Torchlight Energy says that it may drill up to as many as 2500 wells on this area immediately east of El Paso called the Diablo Plateau which, with the Otero Mesa in New Mexico, forms a rich ecosystem of plants and animals. Torchlight Energy Resources must not drill there. The University of Texas Lands System must not allow them.

Please sign and share this petition.