The chairman of the Texas House Committee Energy on Energy Resources has set up a team of lawmakers to investigate earthquakes in oil and gas regions.
Chairman Jim Keffer on Thursday named three Republicans and one Democrat to the Subcommittee on Seismic Activity.
The legislative committee that drafts the laws that regulate the oil and gas industry joins the Texas Railroad Commission in examining why there has been a rash of small earthquakes in parts of the state where oil and gas drilling is high, or where companies drill disposal wells for contaminated water. The commission announced last week it plans to hire a seismologist as part of an effort to tackle the sudden increase in earthquakes.
Since Nov. 1, about 30 quakes have hit areas in and around Azle and Reno, which are northwest of Fort Worth. On Monday, residents in Reno and Azle gathered to try and make sense of the swarm of earthquakes that keep rocking their part of North Texas.
Denton Republican Myra Crownover will chair the subcommittee that will determine if there is a link between the earthquakes and oil and gas activity.
Oil and gas companies deny they are responsible for the temblors.
