Fracking endangers the health, safety and welfare of people, pollutes the air and ground, results in rising crime and social and medical costs, utterly destroys ecosystems and permanently contaminates underground aquifers with toxic compounds and consumes billions of gallons of water. Yet, just a few minutes away from the city limits of El Paso, Texas a major metropolitan area of 675,000 people, and a few miles from the farming community of Dell City, Texas, the University of Texas System has leased over a hundred thousand acres to Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. for the sole purpose of fracking.

Torchlight Energy says that it may drill up to as many as 2500 wells on this area immediately east of El Paso called the Diablo Plateau which, with the Otero Mesa in New Mexico, forms a rich ecosystem of plants and animals. Torchlight Energy Resources must not drill there. The University of Texas Lands System must not allow them.