Study Finds Concerning Levels of Pollution Coming from TotalEnergies’ Urban Fracking Sites in Arlington, TX

CONTACT:
Susana McDermott
Director of Communications
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
201-417-9060 (mobile)
smcdermott@iccr.org

NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2024 – Members of ICCR and investors in TotalEnergies are responding to the release of a new report by EarthWorks and the FracTracker Alliance showing significant levels of emissions of methane and hazardous air pollutants like benzene from the company's fracking operations in urban Arlington, TX.

TotalEnergies ($TTE), the France-based multi-national oil and gas company, has extensive operations in the U.S., in part due to the prohibition of fracking in France where the public health and environmental impacts are thought to overshadow the energy benefits. Total’s U.S. upstream operations are located in the Barnett Shale in Texas with numerous wells concentrated in and around the city of Arlington.

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 and the air and water pollution that result from fracking for natural gas. They have also urged corporate and investor support for strong U.S., Canadian, and EU methane regulations.

But methane isn’t the only concern. A new report by Earthworks and FracTracker Alliance highlights the public health dangers of exposure to other health-harming pollution from TotalEnergies’ fracking sites close to neighborhoods in Arlington Texas, a lower-income and predominantly BIPOC community. Through the use of an optical gas imaging FLIR camera, a leading expert in the field who spent 18 days over six months between August 2023 and January 2024, made 305 site visits and recorded video and images of active pollution. This study is considered 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 regularly exposed to pollution from nearby fracking wells.

“TotalEnergies’ export-driven expansion in Arlington, Texas, has led to gas wells right next door to daycares, rental apartments, mobile home communities, and 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 one in five 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,” said Ranjana Bhandari, Founder and Executive Director of Liveable Arlington.

In the last three years, Total has drilled seven gas wells next door to an Arlington daycare, six wells in the heart of one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Arlington, 11 wells 320 feet from homes in another residential neighborhood and is now drilling more wells in a part of Arlington which ranks in the 98th percentile nationally for air toxics cancer risk. In all but one of these locations, the majority of residents are young families of color. Total’s expansion plans impact the most vulnerable people in Arlington contributing to one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the nation.

Said Christina Herman, Sr Program Director for Climate Change and Environmental Justice at ICCR, “Being headquartered in France, TotalEnergies 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.”

To protect public health in frontline communities in Texas and across the world, investors are calling on TotalEnergies to take responsibility for its environmental impacts 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.

“The findings of this report, particularly the disproportionate impacts on vulnerable children and people of color, are deeply concerning,” says Nicole Lee of Miller/Howard Investments. “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.”

Said Josh Eisenfeld, Earthworks Corporate Accountability Campaign Manager, “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 and people have little option but to take TotalEnergies’ word for it. We hope this investigation gives people in Arlington another option.”

Visit ICCR’s website to learn more.

About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on Twitter/X (@iccronline), LinkedIn, and Facebook.