Witnessing the Permian Climate Bomb

We are methane hunters who use optical gas imaging technology to expose the dirty secrets of oil and gas. In this presentation we will share the story of the Texas Permian Basin and how Oilfield Witness uses this intelligence to educate the public and policy makers to strengthen climate movements.

Speakers

Sharon Wilson and Miguel Escoto - Oilfield Witness

Moderator

Christina Digiulio - PSR PA Environmental Chemist

Sharon Wilson

Sharon is a 5th generation Texan who worked for the oil and gas industry in Ft. Worth, but was unaware of any environmental issues. After 12 years, she left the industry and bought 42 acres in Wise County adjacent to the LBJ National Grasslands. Unknown to her at the time was that George Mitchell was experimenting in Wise County to figure out how to produce oil and gas from shale. She had a ringside seat at the sneak preview called Fracking Impacts.

As she watched her air turn brown and, eventually, her water turn black she documented it all on her blog texassharon.com. Sharon and her son moved to Denton, Texas thinking the city would provide more protection. That irony still burns, but it brought her life’s work with Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project in 2010.

Sharon has briefed NATO Parliamentary Assembly, EPA regulators and even former Administrator Gina McCarthy on the impacts of oil and gas extraction. In 2014, she became a certified optical gas imaging thermographer and now travels across the U.S. making visible the invisible methane pollution from oil and gas facilities and giving tours to media, Members of Congress, state lawmakers, regulators, and investment bankers.

Miguel Escoto

Growing up in the border West Texas community of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Miguel Escoto has witnessed the oil and gas industry’s oppression of vulnerable communities for many years. Since 2020, he has conducted fieldwork in the Permian Basin alongside Sharon Wilson. As Organizing Director he uses this oilfield perspective to support and foster climate movements and organizations in West Texas and elsewhere. Miguel is a founder of Amanecer People’s Project (formerly Sunrise Movement El Paso)–a membership-based, power-building climate organization in El Paso, Texas. He is also a founder of the only climate organization in the Permian Basin: Texas Permian Future Generations. He is 25 years old and is based in El Paso, Texas.