Oilman George Mitchell’s foundation aims to usher in a new energy era in the Permian Basin
The Texas state flag flies above workers at Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in the Permian Basin in Odessa in 2021. The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation aims to eliminate barriers slowing the development of advanced energy technologies and unlock the Permian’s potential to unleash a new era in lower-carbon energy in a push to train workers.
David Goldman, STF / Associated Press
A clean energy future poses an existential threat to the Permian Basin, the prolific oil-producing region in West Texas that transformed the nation into a global energy powerhouse. It’s a problem that a new initiative from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation aims to address.
George Mitchell, who died in 2013, pioneered the hydraulic fracturing techniques that unlocked Permian shale and its oil-producing potential. His foundation now aims to eliminate barriers slowing the development of advanced energy technologies in the region and unlock the Permian’s potential to unleash a new era in lower-carbon energy.
The initiative, called the Permian Energy Development Laboratory, unites a group of research institutions to tackle questions such as whether hydrogen can truly be a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, where to site large-scale solar projects and how the region’s vast amounts of natural gas, wind and solar can be deployed in an emerging clean hydrogen economy. Research institutions involved in the initiative include the University of Texas, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Midland College, Odessa College, New Mexico State University and New Mexico Tech.
