The ground beneath West Texas shook violently on Saturday evening as a magnitude 5.4 earthquake—the region’s most powerful seismic event in recent memory—sent tremors rippling across more than 100 miles of the Lone Star State. The earthquake, which struck at 7:47 p.m. local time, not only rattled buildings and streets from its epicenter near Whites City, New Mexico, to El Paso 200 miles away, but also reignited fierce debates about the true price of Texas’s oil and gas prosperity.
As more than 1,500 residents reported feeling the earth move beneath their feet, and authorities issued warnings about potential aftershocks, a troubling pattern emerged from the data: this wasn’t just a natural disaster, but potentially a man-made one. The earthquake represents the latest and most dramatic example of what scientists increasingly believe is a direct consequence of the state’s aggressive oil and gas extraction practices, particularly the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
In a state where oil is king and energy production drives economic growth, Saturday’s earthquake forces Texans to confront an uncomfortable question: Is the pursuit of energy independence literally shaking the foundations of communities across the state?