Total Disregard

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The footage below exposes methane and other health harming pollution that is invisible to the naked eye. Using specialized methane-detecting cameras, this pollution was filmed emitting from 24 production facilities owned and operated by TotalEnergies (under their subsidiary TEP Barnett) in Arlington, Texas.

The study was commissioned by  Earthworks  - an organization with over a decade of experience in Optical Gas Imaging. All of these images were recorded by a leading expert in the field who spent 18 days over 6 months (August 2023 through January 2024) making a total 305 site visits - making this study the most comprehensive, high frequency investigation of oil and gas wells in the area to date.

Click and slide the dividing line below to show the difference between what your eyes see and what Earthworks’ gas detecting FLIR GF320 cameras see.

Methane is an invisible greenhouse gas that is  86 times as potent  as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane is emitted at every step of the fracked gas supply chain - from extraction to liquefaction and shipping to power generation. Reducing methane emissions was listed as one of Total’s major goals in its  Sustainability & Climate 2024 Progress Report . In fact,  Total claims  to have “already reduced its operated methane emissions by more than 60% since 2015.” However, the pollution we documented highlights the issue with company-reported emissions data (and the truth about what they tell shareholders about reducing emissions): a large share of pollution is never reported. What they show you is a simple estimation with no actual measurements required.

In Texas, where most of Total’s U.S. fracking operations are located, the problem is worsened by the fact that oil and gas companies are exempt from air pollution standards intended to control methane.  A recent study in Nature  found that methane emissions from oil and gas operations in the Fort Worth Basin of the Barnett Shale (where this pollution was recorded) were 3 times higher than what companies had reported.

Oil and gas pollution also consists of health harming pollution, especially for children. TotalEnergies recklessly exploited Texas’ weak oversight to put their wells dangerously close to child care centers and schools -  far closer than what health experts say is safe  - while  denying community  concerns of pollution. But as you see, pollution is certainly happening. Today, Tarrant County, where all of the pollution that you see here was filmed, has one of the  nation’s highest rates of childhood asthma .

Scroll down to learn more about the impacts to the health of nearly half a million people who live, work, and play near sites Total selected for fracking in Texas. To dig deeper into the pollution itself,  click here to jump ahead .

A message from Ranjana Bhandari, Executive Director of Liveable Arlington

Liveable Arlington is a grassroots environmental advocacy organization. We advocate for a healthy, liveable community for our children to grow up in, and for a liveable future on a habitable planet for them. This is being endangered by reckless urban drilling.

Thinking globally, while acting locally, we have organized effectively to stop and slow down new fracking permits in Arlington, stop an injection well, and win protections in local gas drilling rules. We have gone to court to preserve those protections and have built coalitions with immigrant rights and anti-poverty organizations and faith communities, parents, and other allies to protect the most marginalized neighborhoods and the most vulnerable individuals in Arlington from drilling expansion. We are a community watchdog monitoring the impact of Arlington’s gas wells on neighborhoods and helping affected residents.

We have raised the alarm locally, nationally, and internationally with legislators, policy makers and the media about the harms fracking causes in our frontline community and to the global climate.

“Total’s corporate strategy includes treating Arlington’s children like guinea pigs in a reckless urban fracking experiment.”

The map below plots out each of the 14 well sites where Earthworks documented pollution during its 6-month survey of TotalEnergies wells in Arlington. Click any image on the left to zoom into a wellsite, see the pollution Earthworks captured and learn about the wells proximity to homes, child care centers, and schools.

According to the  Business and Human Rights Resource Center , French law requires that TotalEnergies create a “Vigilance Plan.” In that plan, they must lay out reasonable measures to prevent (among other things) “environmental damage or health risks resulting directly or indirectly from the operations of the company and of the companies it controls.”

In their  Vigilance Plan , TotalEnergies outlines a step by step process which it claims to use “at every level of the organization.” This is the process in their exact words:

“...List the main stakeholders for each Subsidiary and site (depots, refineries, etc.), categorize them and schedule consultation meetings to better understand expectations, concerns and opinions. The outcome of this process is the definition of action plans to manage the impacts of activities and consider local development needs, in order to build a long-term relationship based on trust. This process allows the Company to explain its activities to communities and other stakeholders, and to single out potentially vulnerable local populations.”  

This process has not been followed in communities in Texas. In Arlington, Texas, community concerns about pollution near vulnerable local populations like child care centers aren’t just ignored, Total actively defies community wishes. In 2021, Liveable Arlington met with TotalEnergies and Arlington City Council members to discuss the community's concerns over the proximity of Total’s wells to child care centers. Their ask to Total was reasonable and achievable: stop drilling more or new wells so close to daycares.

A month later, in the midst of the pandemic, Total drilled 7 new wells on their aptly named Rocking Horse Well Pad, which is within 150 meters of not one, but two child care centers. The edge of the well pad is just 15 meters from the outdoor playground at the Childcare Network.

As Total continues to expand their drilling operations around schools, child care centers, and homes, the pollution issues remain unaddressed. In fact, at Arlington City Council meetings, TEP representatives have claimed there is no pollution coming from their wells. But thanks to community members tirelessly raising their concerns and sharing their lived experiences Earthworks was able to capture 85 recent videos that show there certainly is.

Like Texas, France’s shales have an abundance of natural gas. There is likely enough drillable natural gas in the ground  to supply the country’s gas needs  for decades. “The United States Energy Information Agency estimates that  there are 137 trillion cubic feet of “technically recoverable” gas in France , equivalent to decades worth of national consumption.”

Yet, unlike Texas, France believes that the health and environmental costs of fracking for gas far outweigh its meager benefits, and that’s why  they made the decision to ban hydraulic fracturing  as a means for extracting gas from shale in 2011.

Since then, French corporations like TotalEnergies have been in search of other countries and regions with poor to no regulation – like the Barnett Shale – to conduct fracking operations that harm, air, water, public health, residents, and the climate. 

Why is it ok for Total to endanger people abroad but not in France? And why, when they know how dangerous fracking can be, do they choose to frack so close to homes, schools and child care centers?

The evidence provided here illustrates a concerning level of pollution coming from Total’s fracking operations which are dangerously close to homes, schools, and child care centers. This is out of line with Total’s  own commitments . Pollution from Total is impacting nearly half a million people in Texas alone. And none of this has been properly disclosed to the public.

To protect public health in frontline communities in Texas and across the world this should not be allowed to continue. 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. 

Shareholders: 

Concerned about what you’ve seen? You’re not the only one. Learn more and connect with other investors by reaching out to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).

Connect with community members living next to Total’s urban drilling.