Photo by: Sharon Steinmann(Houston Chronicle)

An unlikely environmentalist

Oil was in Hawk Dunlap’s blood. He grew up on a 130,000-acre oilfield in Longview, an East Texas boomtown where gushers of black gold were discovered in the 1930s. His grandfather, father and stepfather worked those fields. 

After graduating college in the 90's, Hawk worked his way up in “well control management” — basically, dealing with blowouts. As Hawk saw it, he had a moral obligation to do the job right and keep his team safe. “You owned up to your mistake and you engineered your way out of it," he said.

That’s what Hawk expected of other oilmen then, and what he expects of them now. But careful oilmen would soon be a dwindling breed.

Read editorial writer Nick Powell's in-depth profile of Hawk Dunlap, who's made it his calling to remediate oil wells that are leaking toxins across the state. 

Programming note: Hearst Newspapers is growing in Texas! This newsletter now includes stories from the Austin American-Statesman, as well as stories from the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Midland Reporter-Telegram and the Beaumont Enterprise.

Claire Hao, Energy Reporter claire.hao@houstonchronicle.com

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What We're Reading

The Public Utility Commission of Texas has sued the Texas Attorney General's office to block the release of cryptocurrency mining information, Straight Arrow News reports.