House Energy Resources to Weigh Carbon Storage, Produced-Water Reuse and Quake-Linked Injection Wells

The Texas House Committee on Energy Resources will gavel in at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 14 in Capitol Extension room E2.026 to take public and invited testimony on three interim charges that between them cover almost everything the oil patch puts back underground: carbon dioxide, produced water and the disposal wells blamed for West Texas earthquakes. Texans who do not testify in person may file written comments on all three topics through the committee’s online portal until the hearing is adjourned, and public testimony may be limited at the chair’s discretion, according to the hearing notice.

Rep. Drew Darby, R–San Angelo, chairs the 11-member panel — six Republicans and five Democrats — with Rep. Eddie Morales, D–Eagle Pass, as vice chair, according to the committee’s page. Energy Resources holds jurisdiction over the Railroad Commission of Texas, pipelines, mineral development and the state’s energy conservation programs. It is also the committee that wrote the produced-water liability statute now sitting on its own review list, and the committee where the Legislature’s last attempt to settle who owns underground pore space quietly died. It last met April 21.

The carbon capture, utilization and storage charge arrives at a moment of real regulatory change. EPA approved Texas’ application for primary enforcement authority over Class VI carbon-sequestration wells in November 2025, and the Railroad Commission took over the program Dec. 15, 2025, making Texas the sixth state to hold that authority. Projects that previously needed both a state and a federal authorization now need only a commission permit. The notice asks members to judge whether commercial carbon storage remains viable, what it means for energy security, and how case law and statute handle pore-space ownership, operator liability and environmental protection. On that last point Texas statute is silent: House Bill 2762 by Rep. Charlie Geren, R–Fort Worth, which would have defined ownership of the pore space underlying the surface of land, was referred to Energy Resources on March 19, 2025, and never voted out; its identical Senate companion, Senate Bill 1258 by Sen. Robert Nichols, R–Jacksonville, stalled the same way in Senate Natural Resources.

The produced water charge is closer to home for the chair. House Bill 49, which Darby authored and this committee reported out 7-0, took effect Sept. 1, 2025. It limits tort liability for landowners, operators, treaters and transporters once produced water is transferred for beneficial use, while preserving liability for gross negligence, intentional misconduct and violations of Railroad Commission rules or Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permits. Members are asked to assess barriers to deployment, financial impediments and whether the liability fix worked. The Dispatch reported in August that regulators told senators the rollout was advancing faster than the line between agencies was drawn, and reported this month that Pecos-area landowners are split over discharging treated oilfield wastewater.

The seismic activity and injection wells charge puts the Railroad Commission’s own permitting under the lens. The agency issued enhanced guidelines for Permian Basin disposal wells on May 16, 2025, effective that June 1. They doubled the area of review around an injection site from a quarter-mile to a half-mile radius, capped surface injection pressure so it cannot fracture the confining strata, and tied maximum daily injection volume to reservoir pressure. Permit applications within 25 kilometers of a seismic event are still reviewed under the agency’s separate seismicity guidelines. Members are directed to decide whether those measures are enough to protect public safety and critical infrastructure.

Because this is an interim hearing, the committee will take no votes and no legislation is before it. What members hear will shape the panel’s interim report and the energy bills filed for the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.

Meeting at a glance

Committee members

• Rep. Drew Darby, R–San Angelo (HD-72) — Chair
• Rep. Eddie Morales, D–Eagle Pass (HD-74) — Vice Chair
• Rep. Tom Craddick, R–Midland (HD-82)
• Rep. Jay Dean, R–Longview (HD-7)
• Rep. Paul Dyson, R–Bryan (HD-14)
• Rep. Josey Garcia, D–San Antonio (HD-124)
• Rep. Gary Gates, R–Richmond (HD-28)
• Rep. Stan Gerdes, R–Smithville (HD-17)
• Rep. R.D. “Bobby” Guerra, D–Mission (HD-41)
• Rep. Ron Reynolds, D–Missouri City (HD-27)
• Rep. Jon E. Rosenthal, D–Houston (HD-135)