Total Disregard

ICCR members have been engaging oil & gas companies for more than 15 years on the need for better methane management and disclosure, primarily given methane’s outsized contribution to the GHG emissions driving climate change. We have also been urging corporate and investor support for strong US, Canadian, and EU methane regulations to reduce methane leaks around well sites. A new report by Earthworks and FracTracker Alliance highlights the public health dangers of methane exposure through TotalEnergies fracking sites in close proximity to local communities in Arlington, Texas, a lower-income and predominantly BIPOC community.

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“TotalEnergies, being headquartered in France, is subject to its Duty of Vigilance law, which requires companies subject to the law to develop an effective vigilance plan ‘to allow for risk identification and the prevention of severe violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, serious bodily injury or environmental damage or health risks resulting directly or indirectly from the operations of the company and of the companies it controls…’ Investors are concerned about the company's potential legal liability from its operations in Texas, the impacts of which are made clear by this report.”

Christina Herman, Sr Program Director for Climate Change and Environmental Justice and ICCR

“TotalEnergies’ export driven expansion in Arlington, Texas, has led to gas wells right next door to daycares, rental apartments, mobile home communities, homes – often in neighborhoods where an overwhelming majority of the residents are people of color already facing severe health and economic challenges. Our county has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the nation, almost 1 in 5 children have asthma – and one of the highest rates of birth defects in the state. The burdens of Total’s unchecked pollution are unequally distributed with communities of color and children paying the highest price.”

Ranjana Bhandari, Founder and Executive Director of Liveable Arlington

“Total has fought aggressively to frack right next to daycare centers. They tell local officials their operations are clean, deny community complaints, and vastly underreport their emissions to investors and the public. They are able to do this because their pollution is invisible to the naked eye. People have little option but to take TotalEnergies’ word for it. We hope this investigation gives people in Arlington another option.”

Josh Eisenfeld, Earthworks Corporate Accountability Campaign Manager

“The findings of this report, particularly the disproportionate impacts on vulnerable children and people of color, are deeply concerning. As an investor in TotalEnergies, we look forward to engaging the company on their operations in North Texas and call on the company to respect the human rights of the populations they are impacting.”

Nicole Lee, Director of ESG Research, Miller/Howard Investments

Through “Optical Gas Imaging”, images were recorded by a leading expert in the field who spent 18 days over six months (August 2023 through January 2024) making a total of 305 site visits – making this study the most comprehensive, high-frequency investigation of oil and gas wells in the area to date. The Total Disregard report found that nearly half a million people, including children in nearby daycare centers, are being exposed to dangerous levels of pollution. It is the most comprehensive study of urban fracking air pollution to date.

The toplines of what they found are:

More than 85 pollution events from 305 site visits over 6 months
75% of these wells were located within 200m of homes and 57% were within 100m
Within the city limits of Arlington, more than 20 wells are located just 200m from childcare centers
420,000 people living within 1/2 mile of Total’s wells (known as the threat radius)

To protect public health in frontline communities in Texas and across the world, TotalEnergies must take responsibility and make the following changes to its operations worldwide:

End all current fracking operations within 1,000 feet (~300 meters) of Schools or Child Care Centers
Enforce the following setbacks (minimum distance) on all new wells:
2,000 feet (~600 meters) from Schools and Child Care Centers;
1,500 feet (~450 meters) from Homes

Visit the Total Disregard Website Read our Press Release

If you’re interested in learning more and joining other investors in working for best practices on methane management and respect for human rights by oil & gas companies, please contact Christina Herman and Emmy Hammond at ICCR.

For additional tools and to learn more about ICCR’s work on methane over the years, please visit our methane program page. ICCR’s Investor Engagement Guidance on Methane is available here.

For the Community Health Impacts of Fracking Operations in Arlington, TX

Insight