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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Opposition to Fracking Grows

Click to enlarge. Map from NewsOK

Reno, Texas has taken steps to ban fracking by "limiting disposal well activity to operators who can prove the injections won't cause earthquakes," reports Emily Schmall of the Associated Press. The oil and gas industry pumps waste water from fracking deep underground supposedly to prevent contamination of the water table. 

Schmall's updated article was republished in various places online and in major newspapers such as the Washington Times and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In its issue today (Monday, December 1, 2014) the El Paso Times buried the article on page 4 of Borderland. I have yet to find a link to it on the El Paso Times online. (On its front page, the El Paso Times major headline was "Fans Remember Icon 'Chespirito'". The front page had nothing about opposition to and dangers of fracking across the country now that the threat of fracking is just a few miles beyond Hueco Tanks.)

Reno, a town between Paris, Texas and Texarkana has experienced hundreds of earthquakes just in the past year. A Magnitude 4.2 earthquake rattled Medford, Oklahoma yesterday following on the heels of two other earthquakes in the region - some felt in neighboring Kansas. The cause? Fracking.  Read or listen to an NPR interview about Oklahoma quakes and fracking.

No wonder Reno and communities across the country are fighting fracking including conservative Denton, Texas.

And thanks to the El Paso, Times front page story by Diana Washington Valdez yesterday (Sunday, November 30, 2014) and Robbie Gray's El Paso Inc. story on the first page of the "Your Money" section, signers of our online petition jumped overnight from 138 supporters to 551 and during this morning to 658! (Sorry no EP Times link yet to Valdez's Sunday story but one to her Saturday story.) Both Valdez and Gray mentioned elpasonaturally's Change.org petition.

Growing opposition to fracking is certainly a silver lining as are falling oil prices worldwide. Just don't ever expect the Texas Railroad Commission, the Texas Land Office or the University of Texas to ever be enviromentally moral and responsible - at least while the current oligarchy rules the Lone Star State.